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ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



CHAPTERS ABOUT HORSES AND 
THEIR TREATMENT. 



fortis equus, spatio qui saepe supremo 

Vicit Olympia. 




H. C. MEKWIN. 




3i- 

BOSTON: 
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 

1892. 



St 



Copyright, 189S, 
By Little, Brown, and Company. 



'I'SUsj 



Sanibersttjj press: 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



TO 

ANNE AMORY MERWIN 

IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HER ASSISTANCE 
AS HORSEWOMAN AND CRITIC. 



o 



:n^ote. 

F the chapters in this book, the second, 
sixth, and last, dealing with " Trotting 
Families," "Saddle Horses," and ''The Care of 
Horses," are now published for the first time. 
The remaining chapters originally appeared in 
the Atlantic Monthly, from which they are re- 
printed by the kind permission of the publishers 
of that magazine. The opportunity of republica- 
tion has been taken to revise and enlarge these 
chapters. 



Concord, Massachusetts, 
October, 1892. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Ethics of Horse-Keeping .... l 

II. Trotting Families 23 

III. Trotting Horses 59 

IV. Trotting Races 87 

V. Road Horses 113 

VI. Saddle Horses 144 

VII. Carriage Horses and Cobs 178 

VIII. Cart Horses 206 

IX. Fire Horses 22f> 

X. Arabian Horses 255 

XI. The Care of Horses 28G 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 
GlenCOE Frontispiece '" 

Naomi and Foal 1 

The property of Mr. Randolph Huutington. 

Rysdyck's Hambletonian 23 

Mambrino King at twenty years of age To face 32'^— 

From a Photograph which Mr. C. J. Hamlin, the owner, kindly 
had taken for this book. 

Onward, Son of George Wilkes 5^ 

Ariox To face 84^ 

The property of Mr. J. Malcolm Forbes. 

Henry Clay 86 

Goldsmith Maid 87 

Smuggler 112 

A Half-bred Mare 113 

From an instantaneous Photograph. 

Antewood, a Trotting Stallion 143 

Redrawn from •' Tlie Chicago Horseman." 

A Morning Ride 144 

From a Picture by J. Sturgis. 

Miss Hammond, a Bronco-Thoroughbred . . . 177 

The property of Mr. S. D, Warren. 

Coach Horses 178 

Ethan Allen . To face 198--- 

A Half-bred Carriage Horse 205 



X ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Pagk 
A Ploughing Team at Work 206 

From an instantaueous Photograph. 

Cart Horses 228 

Going to a Fire 229 

From an instantaneous Photograph. 

Old Joe 254 

From a Photograph. 

Bonaparte's Arabian Charger 255 

From the Picture by Meissonier. 

A Stable Scene 286 

Redrawn from " The Chicago Horseman." 

Old Boney 322 

From a Photograph. 



ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 




THE ETHICS OF HORSE-KEEPING. 



IF a man could go into open market and for two or 
three hundred dollars purchase the lifelong devo- 
tion of a friend, though a humble friend, it would be 
accounted a wonderful thing. But that is exactly 
what happens, or might happen, whenever a horse is 
bought. You give him food, lodging, and the reason- 
able services of a valet, in return for which he will 
not only further your business or your pleasure, as 
the case may be, to the best of his ability, but he will 
also repay you with affection, respond to your ca- 
resses, greet you with a neigh of pleased recognition, 
and in a hundred ways of his own exhibit a sense of 
the relationship. 

There are men to whom a horse is only an animate 
machine : they will ride and drive him, hire grooms 

1 



2 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

and draw cheques for his sustenance and keeping, but 
all without a single thought of the animal as having 
a character, a mind, a career of his own; as being 
susceptible to pain or pleasure ; as a creature for 
whose welfare they have assumed a certain respon- 
sibility, of which they cannot get rid, although they 
may forget it or deny its existence. Even among 
people who are intelligent, religious, and kind-hearted, 
as the world goes, there is sometimes found, as we all 
know, especially when their own convenience is con- 
cerned, an astonishing indifference to the sufferings 
of dumb beasts. 

Never shall I forget the shock produced upon my 
infant mind by a case of this sort in which a deeply 
venerated bishop was the actor. The good man de- 
scribed in my presence the great difficulty that he 
had recently experienced, upon arriving in town, in 
obtaining a conveyance from the railroad station to 
the house where he was to stay, two or three miles 
distant. Through some mistake, no carriage had been 
sent for him; and by the liverymen to whom the 
bishop applied he was told that all their horses were 
so wearied and jaded, a huge picnic or funeral hav- 
ing just occurred in the village, that they absolutely 
could not send one out again. But the successor of 
the Apostles so wrought upon the stable-keepers by 
his eloquence — thus he narrated, without suspicion 
of the awful judgment that was passing upon him by 
youthful innocence, sitting unnoticed in a corner — 
that some unlucky, overtired brute was finally dragged 
from his stall and sent off upon the five-mile jaunt. 
Now the day was warm, to be sure, and the bishop a 
stout man ; still, being in the prime of life, he could 



THE ETHICS OB^ HORSE-KEEPING. 6 

have taken no harm, but rather good, from the walk ; 
and yet neither when he hired the horse nor when he 
related the transaction did it occur to him that the 
act was one of inexcusable cruelty. How many peo- 
ple, indeed, know or care what is the condition of 
the livery horses that they hire from time to time ? 
How many, when they summon a cab, so much as 
glance at the beast in the shafts ? But it is almost 
always possible to make a selection, rejecting the 
palpably unfit, choosing the fit horse ; and if every- 
body took even this slight amount of trouble, the em- 
ployment of broken-down cab horses would cease to 
be profitable. 

There is a good deal of hard-heartedness in our 
Puritan blood as respects dumb animals. I once spent 
several weeks on a farm where many beasts of vari- 
ous kinds were kept. The family was of pure New 
England stock, farmers for many generations back, — 
stalwart, intelligent, honest people, pillars of the 
church, leading men in the village, but in their treat- 
ment of dumb beasts without feeling or compunction. 
If the cows did not enter their stalls at the proper 
moment, they were pounded with whatever weapon 
came handy ; horses were driven when they were 
lame, and neglected when .they were tired. Every 
animal on the place was in a continual state of hunger, 
and none ever received a kind word or a pat of the 
hand. That on all convenient occasions I surrep- 
titiously fed the occupants of the barn, horses, cows, 
oxen, and bull, is a fact which I may be permitted to 
state, lest I should include myself in the condemna- 
tion of these hard-hearted farmers ; and I recall with 
pleasure the anticipatory neighing, the scraping of 



4 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

hoofs, and the rattling of chains that soon became 
a regular occurrence whenever I set foot upon the 
threshold. I have known better educated, village- 
bred persons of the same stamp, men of a kind 
that command, when they die, half-column ol)it- 
uary notices in the papers, who took a vicious de- 
light in stoning dogs oft' their lawns, and who would 
have been moved to scorn by any show of affection 
for a horse. 

People whose attitude toward dumb animals is of 
this character not only fail of their duty, but miss a 
vast amount of happiness. Horses are to be enjoyed 
in other ways than those of riding and driving. To 
become familiar with their characters and peculiarities, 
of which latter horses have many ; to see them com- 
fortable in their stalls, sleek, well fed, well groomed, 
warmly blanketed :. to give them affection, and to re- 
ceive it back; finally, to take a pride in them, and, 
frankly speaking, to brag about them without being 
more unveracious than a fairly good conscience will 
allow, — this it is to enjoy a horse. In this matter, as 
in all others where motives are concerned, the good 
and bad, or at least the good and indifferent, in human 
nature can be made to co-operate ; the sense of duty 
may be reinforced by a more spontaneous feeling, 
namely, the pride of ownership. In fact, to lay a 
foundation for the exercise of this quality should 
always be a chief object in buying a horse. Let your 
new purchase have that about him concerning which 
you can declare, with sufficient plausibility to defy 
absolute contradiction, that he stands in the very 
front rank of equine excellence ; as that he is the 
most speedy, or the most enduring, or the hand- 



THE ETHICS OP HORSE-KEEPING. O 

somest, or tlie gentlest, or the most intelligent, or the 
toughest, of animals. If these qualities fail, we come 
down to minor excellences, such as the fineness of 
his coat, the beauty of its color, the silkiness of his 
mane, the length of his tail, or the nobility of his 
descent. It is quite possible to buy for a small sum 
horses of unexceptionable pedigree ; and though a 
well-bred weed or screw really travels no better than 
a "dunghill," yet his breeding will always command 
admiration, and cast a reflected gloiy upon his owner. 
The point of superiority may be this or that ; enough 
that it distinguishes your horse from the ruck of 
horses, and justifies in some measure, at least to the 
world at large, the pride and pleasure that you take 
in him. This reference to the opinion of others as a 
guide for our affections, even when a human being 
constitutes the object, is one of those vile traits that 
lie hid in the murky depths of our nature. Was it 
not remarked by George Sand, who knew the human 
heart, and certainly took no pessimistic view of it, 
that men love women not for what they think of 
them, but for what they suppose other people to 
think of them ? 

And yet there is another aspect of the matter. 
Just as disinterested affection, or something approach- 
ing it, may exist between man and woman, so it is 
possible to be fond of a horse, and to be hapx^y in his 
well-being, with no admixture of those baser feelings 
to which I have alluded. I wish that you, gentle 
reader of this book, might be induced to try the fol- 
lowing experiment. We will suppose that you have 
a stable with an unoccupied stall in it, and by prefer- 
ence, though it is not essential, that a paddock is 



6 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

appurtenant to the stable. (Not everybody, indeed, 
is so fortunately situated, but still the conditions just 
mentioned are by no means uncommon.) Now let us 
suppose further that you go into the market or to 
some private person and purchase, as you may easily 
do for forty or lifty dollars, an old, broken-down 
horse, of whom a long hard day's work has been, and 
unless you intervene will for some years yet con- 
tinue to be extracted. Take him home, and watch 
the quick transition from misery to happiness. He 
comes into your stable with stiff, painful steps; his 
legs swollen from hock and knee to ankle ; his ribs 
clearly visible through a rough, staring coat; and, 
above all, with that strained, anxious expression of 
the eye which nobody who has once seen and under- 
stood it can ever expel from his memory. It is the 
expression of despair. You take off his shoes, give 
him a run at grass or a deep bed of straw in a com- 
fortable loose box, and forthwith the old horse begins 
to improve. Little by little, the expression of his eye 
changes, the swelling goes out of his legs, and it will 
not be long before he cuts a caper ; a stiff and un- 
gainly one, to be sure, but still a caper, indicative of 
health and happiness. He will neigh at your ap- 
proach, and gladly submit his head for a caress, 
whereas at first he would have shrunk in terror from 
any such advances. (It may be ten years since a 
hand was laid upon him in kindness.) If you have 
any work for him to do, the old horse will perform 
it with alacrity, exerting himself out of gratitude; 
he will even flourish off in harness with the airs of 
a colt, as who should say, "There is life in me yet; 
don't send me to the knacker; behold my strength 



THE ETHICS OF HORSE-KEEPING. 7 

and agility." ^ Treat him as you would treat him if he 
had cost you a great sum, or as if you expected to win a 
great sum through his exertions. Let him have good 
blankets, good grooming, and all the little attentions 
of a well ordered establishment. Is there anything 
ridiculous in this ? Shall not the stable, as well as 
the house, have its sacred rites of hospitality ? 
Shall not the old cheap horse be made as comfortable 
as the young and costly one ? 

And here I anticipate an obvious criticism. "The 
horse should be killed, and the money that it costs to 
maintain him be given to the poor." I grant it. Let 
the old horse be shot, and let the two dollars and fifty 
cents per week necessary for his support be given in 
charity. But see to it, ye who might maintain an 
equine pensioner, and forbear to do so for reasons of 
conscience, — see to it that the poor be not defrauded 
of the sum thus saved for them. 

Doubtless the ideal manner of keeping a horse is 
that practised in Arabia, where, we are told, he is 
treated like one of the family, being the constant 
companion of the children, and allowed to poke his 
nose within the tent and in all the household affairs. 
Unfortunately, our habits of living will not permit 
such intimacy, although T have seen a yearling colt 
within the walls of a country dwelling-house, taking a 
moderate lunch of oats from the kitchen table, and 
afterward, with ears erect, briefly surveying the out- 
side world through the drawing-room window. Mr. 
Briggs's introduction of his hunter to the dining- 

1 The final illustration is a portrait of an old cab horse, rescued 
in a moribund condition, and rejuvenated in the manner stated in 
the text. 



8 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

room on Christmas niglit, in the animal's professional 
capacity, and the consequent results to the china, will 
occur to the reader as a similar case. But although 
such instances must necessarily be rare, and are not, 
perhaps, exactly to be imitated, it is possible for 
every horse-owner to cultivate the social and affec- 
tionate side of the animal's nature by talking to and 
caressing him, by visiting him in the stable, by mak- 
ing him little gifts, from time to time, of sugar and 
other dainties. Petting like this undoubtedly tends 
to render high-spirited horses more tractable and safer 
on the road than they would be otherwise. 

Mustangs that have been allowed to run wild on the 
prairies until they are brought to the East and sold 
can rarely be broken so as to be safe in harness ; but 
ponies of the same breed that have been in actual use 
by the Indians are very trustworthy. Such ponies, 
like Arab horses, have become domesticated, and cease 
to regard human beings as their natural enemies. 

Few persons, moreover, realize how much a nervous, 
timid horse dislikes to be left alone, especially amid 
terrifying or even unusual surroundings. I once 
brought on a steamer from Portland to Boston a 
high-strung Morgan mare that I had owned but two 
weeks. She had never travelled thus before, and 
during the first hour or two, if I left her alone for 
a moment, as happened once or twice, she became 
distressed and alarmed in the highest degree, sweat- 
ing profusely and struggling to get loose ; but when I 
returned she would immediately become calm again, 
rubbing her nose against me as much as to say, " For 
Heaven's sake, don't leave me alone." The same 
horse (I have her still), when tied in front of a 



THE ETHICS OF HORSE-KEEPING. 9 

Strange house, always greets me when I come out 
with an eager, enthusiastic neigh, as if she had begun 
to despair of seeing her master again. 

Nevertheless, whether from the want of ancestral 
usage or otherwise, horses, it must be granted, are 
less sociable with men than are dogs. Nor cau I 
agree with the remark recorded as having been made 
by the famous sportsman, Thomas Assheton Smith, 
(but perhaps incorrectly,) that "horses are far more 
sensible than dogs." The converse, I should say, is 
true. Dogs are more sensible, more intelligent, more 
affectionate, and, as a rule, more trustworthy than 
horses. So much justice requires that we should 
admit, although the contrary is often maintained by 
persons well informed upon the subject. Who, indeed, 
has not heard the intelligence of the horse eloquently 
defended by some hard-headed, hard-drinking old 
horseman, who would seem to enjoy a perfect im- 
munity from all sentimental considerations ? But he 
does not. "If we could have come upon Diogenes 
suddenly," Thackeray somewhere remarks, " he would 
probably have been found whimpering in his tub over 
a sentimental romance." And so the old horseman, 
being fond of horses, knowing them, but knowing 
nothing else, deriving both his livelihood and his 
pleasure from them, unconsciously exaggerates their 
good qualities. But, on the other hand, the horse is 
far more intelligent than most people suppose, and 
there are certain qualities in which he excels all 
other dumb animals. " The conspicuous merit of the 
horse, which has given him the dearly paid honor of 
sharing in our wars," says Mr. Hamerton, in a charm- 
ing essay, " is his capacity for being disciplined ; and 



10 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

a very great capacity it is, a very noble gift indeed, — 
nobler than muck cleverness. Several animals are 
cleverer than the horse in the way of intelligence; 
not one is so amenable to discipline." ^ This is 
true, unless an exception should be made in favor 
of the elephant. But Mr. Hamerton omits to state 

— except perhaps by implication — the very respect 
in which the superiority of the horse to all other 
dumb animals is most important and most striking, 
namely, the fineness of his nervous system. All the 
sreat achievements of the horse ; all his wonderful 
flights of speed and feats of endurance; all his ca- 
pacity for being guided, restrained, quickly turned, 
and stopped, for being urged to the limit, and beyond 
the limit, of his strength, — all, in fact, that is glo- 
rious in him springs from the sensitiveness of his 
nervous organization. In this respect no other dumb 
animal that I know of will bear comparison with the 
horse. Mr. Hamerton well says, in contrasting the 
horse and the ass : — 

" I have never yet seen the donkey which could be 
guided easily and safely through an intricate crowd 
of carriages or on a really dangerous road. The de- 
ficiency of the ass may be expressed in a single word, 

— it is deficiency of delicacy. You can guide a good 
horse as delicately as a sailing-boat; when the skil- 
ful driver has an inch to spare he is perfectly at his 

1 Mr. Hamerton adds that the horse is not observant except of 
places. But this is a great mistake. A strange footfall in a stable 
will be noticed in a moment by all the occupants of the stalls. A 
lively horse observes the least movement of his groom or rider, and 
his curiosity is extreme. On strange roads horses always drive 
better than on familiar roads. They are more alert and go faster, 
so as to see what is coming next. 



THE ETHICS OF HORSE-KEEPING. 11 

ease, and he can twist in and out amongst the throng 
of vehicles, when a momentary disphiy of self-will in 
the animal would be the cause of an immediate acci- 
dent. The ass appears to be incapable of any delicate 
discipline of this kind." 

What makes the horse so delicate an instrument to 
play upon is the quick and tine connection between 
his nerves and his brain, and the sensitiveness of his 
skin. People who have never entered into the art of 
driving or riding, though they may both drive and 
ride all their lives, think that holding the reins is 
something like steering a heavy boat : pull to the 
right if you want to go in that direction, pull hard 
if you want to stop, and so on.^ But the real art of 
driving and riding is the exercise of a light, firm, 
sensitive hand upon the reins, and the continual play 
of intelligence, of command on the one hand and 
of obedience on the other, between the man and 
the horse. 

The same nervous development that makes the 
horse a sensitive, controllable, pliable animal makes 
him also capable of great feats. To run or trot fast, in 
heat after heat, requires not only mechanical fitness, 
such as well proportioned limbs, good bone and mus- 
cle, good lung power, etc., but also an inward energy, 
the " do or die " spirit, as horsemen call it. Many a 

1 Opinion as to what constitutes excellence in horse-flesh is very 
diverse. I remember once hearing the praises of a certain Dobbin 
sung with great enthusiasm by a literary man. This was the most 
perfect horse in the world ; but, on cross-examination, perfection 
was found to reside in one quality, — wherever you left him, there 
the animal would stand without being tied. You might l)e gone a 
year, and come back to find him still waiting for you in the middle 
of the road. 



12 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE, 

horse has speed enough to make a racer, but lacks the 
requisite courage and determination. " She was tried 
a good mare, but never won anything," is a phrase 
of frequent occurrence in William Day's reminiscen- 
ces. There are cases in which thousands of dollars 
have been spent for fast trotters that were afterward 
sold for a few hundreds, simply because they were too 
sluggish and faint-hearted to keep on after they be- 
came tired. On the other hand, almost all the fastest 
horses, the "record breakers," whether among racers 
or trotters, have been remarkable for their nervous, 
"high-strung" constitutions. The trainer of Sunol 
(the California filly, who has a three-year-old record 
of 2.10, and who at four years of age trotted a mile 
upon a kite-shaped track in 2.08|), after describing 
the great difficulty that he experienced in breaking 
her, says : " Not that she was actually vicious, but 
she had and has a will, a temper, and a determina- 
tion of her own, and at that time every individual 
hair seemed to contain a nerve." 

Even among the best breeds of cart horses, such as 
the Percherons and Clydesdales, the same quality is 
not altogether wanting, and in general it distinguishes, 
as I have said, the horse from all other dumb animals. 
It follows, of course, that the horse is the most irri- 
table of creatures, the most easily worried and dis- 
tressed. Little things, such as no other animal, man 
included perhaps, would mind, annoy and exasperate 
him. If, for example, you notice a row of express- 
wagon horses backed up against the curbstone, you 
will easily perceive that every horse there has his 
temper permanently ruined by the frequent passing 
of vehicles before him, thus obliging him to turn 



THE ETHICS OF HORSE-KEEPING, IB 

his head. Harsh treatment, though it stop short of 
inflicting physical pain, keeps a nervous horse in 
a state of misery. "An hostler's angry tone will 
send a quiver of fear — I have seen it scores of 
times — down a whole barnful of stalls." ^ On the 
other hand, it is perfectly true, as a besotted but 
intelligent stable-keeper once observed to me, "A 
kind word for a hoss is as good sometimes as a feed 
of oats." A single blow may be enough to spoil 
a racer. Daniel Lambert, founder of the Lambert 
branch of the Morgan family, was thought as a three- 
year-old to be the fastest trotting stallion of his 
day. He was a very handsome, stylish, intelligent 
horse, and also extremely sensitive. His driver, Dan 
Mace, though one of the best reinsmen that the track 
has produced, once made the mistake, either through 
ill temper or bad judgment, of giving Daniel Lam- 
bert a severe cut with the whip, and that single 
blow put an end to his usefulness as a trotter. He 
became wild and ungovernable in harness, and re- 
mained so for the rest of his life. 

One of the best, most docile, most intelligent ani- 
mals that I have known was a powerful brown 
horse belonging to a veterinary surgeon. When the 
doctor was making professional visits in the city 
where he lived, he would often walk from one stable 
to another, and beckon or call to the horse to follow 
him. This the latter would always do, w^aiting pa- 
tiently meanw^hile. But if any strange man or boy 
mounted the gig and attempted to drive him off, he 
could not be made to budge an inch. This animal 

1 I quote this just remark from a published sermon upon dumb 
animals, delivered by the Rev. G. L. Walker of Hartford. Conn. 



14 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

showed his intelligence and docility m many other 
ways ; and yet he had begun his career in harness by 
killing two or three men, more or less, and the sur- 
geon, who perceived that the horse was naturally 
kind, and that his temper had been soured by ill 
treatment, purchased him for a song. He served his 
master faithfully for more than twenty years. 

I do not mean to say that a nervous horse is always 
courageous and always intelligent, nor to imply that 
courageous intelligent horses are invariably nervous.-^ 
But these qualities commonly go together ; and as the 
horse is distinguished from all other dumb beasts by 
a highly developed nervous system, if I may be for- 
given for repeating the statement, so the finest speci- 
mens of the genus are usually those in which this 
development is most conspicuous. Hence, in dealing 
with the horse, more than with most animals, one 
ought to exercise patience, care, and, above all, the 
power of sympathy, so as to know, if possible, the 
real motive of his doing or refusing to do this or 
that. To acquire such knowledge, and to act upon 
it, when acquired, is a large part of the ethics of 
horse-keeping. 

In the matter of shying, for example, great dis- 
crimination needs to be exercised. Everybody knows 

^ It happens sometimes, though rarely, that a courageous horse 
is sluggish and has to be " aroused," even by the whip. Such an an- 
imal is the trotting stallion Wedgewood, one of the best " finishers " 
ever seen on the track, and famous for winning races of numerous 
heats against speedier but less enduring competitors. Another type 
is that of the ambitious, but soft and washy horse, who goes off 
at a great pace, but soon tires. The ideal roadster starts slowly, 
gradually warms to his work, and after ten miles or so (just when 
the inferior horse has had enough) begins to be full of play. 
Such pre-eminently is the habit of the Morgan family. 



THE ETHICS OF HORSE-KEEPING. 15 

that when horses are in good spirits, especially in 
cold weather, they will often shy at sights or sounds 
which under other circumstances they pass by with- 
out notice. In such a case it is always assumed that 
the horse, out of roguishness, is simply pretending to 
be afraid; and commonly this is true. Frequently, 
indeed, horses work themselves into a condition of 
panic for the mere fun of the thing, — to enjoy the 
pleasure of running or sliying off from the object 
of their half-real, half-fictitious terror, just as a 
school-girl might scurry through a churchyard at 
dusk. 

In one of Mr. Galton's books there is a passage 
about wild animals which throws light on the conduct 
of some tame animals. He says : " From my own recol- 
lection, I believe that every antelope in South Africa 
has to run for its life every one or two days upon an 
average, and that he starts or gallops under the influ- 
ence of a false alarm many times in a day. Those 
who have crouched at night by the side of pools in 
the desert, in order to have a shot at the beasts that 
frequent them, see strange scenes of animal life : how 
the creatures gambol at one moment and fight at an- 
other ; how a herd suddenly halts in strained atten- 
tion, and then breaks into a maddened rush, as one of 
them becomes conscious of the stealthy movements or 
rank scent of a beast of prey. Now this hourly life- 
and-death excitement is a keen delight to most wild 
creatures." 

But there is more behind. I am convinced that 
nervous horses, when in high condition, and stimu- 
lated by the cold or otherwise, are often actually 
frightened by objects which do not thus affect them 



16 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

at other times. Their nerves, being more tense, send 
a different message to the brain. I have seen a man 
of robnst constitution, but just getting out after a 
long illness, jump like a colt when a piece of white 
paper blew across the sidewalk before him. Now, 
what illness had done for his nerves, high condition, 
cold air, want of exercise, will do for the nerves of a 
horse, especially if he be a young horse ; and the 
moral is, that for shying thus brought about the whip 
is no cure. In fact, even for intentional shying the 
use of the whip does more harm than good ; it is per- 
missible only when the horse refuses to approach or 
to pass a particular object. If he cannot be led or 
coaxed forward, then it is well to employ punish- 
ment, for he must never be allowed to disobey. 

The success in equine matters of which Americans 
can fairly boast is due chiefly to the fact that we have 
consulted the equine nature. Our trainers, perceiving 
that the horse is a nervous, timid, and yet docile ani- 
mal, have endeavored to win his confidence, rather 
than to subdue his spirit. Instead of breaking colts, 
we " gentle " them ; and that single word developed 
in the daily usage of the stable eloquently indicates 
the difference between the old method and the new, 
between American horse-training and foreign horse- 
breaking. The superintendent of a large stock farm 
states : " At the age of six months we take up the 
colts and gentle them. After several weeks of this 
work they are again turned out. At fourteen months 
old they are taken up and driven double with an old 
horse, and in a short time they are put in single har- 
ness." In smaller establishments even greater pains 
are taken to domesticate tJie colt from infancy up- 



THE ETHICS OF HORSE-KEEPING. 17 

ward ; and in general the method is to accustom him 
gradually to the bit, to the harness, to being driven 
and ridden, so that his education is completed by a 
succession of small steps, each achieved without a 
struggle, without rebellion, without exciting the fear 
or hatred of the colt. The result is that our horses 
are commonly gentle. I have seen a high-spirited 
stallion, on the fourth occasion of his being in har- 
ness, driven to a top-wagon, and going so kindly that 
the owner did not hesitate to take his child of three 
years with him. 

In England great improvement in these matters has 
been made in recent years, but the British horse- 
trainer is still behind the age. Vicious horses, again, 
are far more to seek here than is the case abroad. 
Abroad there is no difficulty in providing those horse- 
breakers who perform in public with specimens on 
which to exert their skill, — with " man-eaters," con- 
firmed kickers, etc. But in this country, when such 
an exhibition is to be given, say in ISTew York or in 
Boston, it is found almost, sometimes quite, impos- 
sible to procure a beast savage enough to do credit 
to his subjugator. 

John Bull has accomplished wonders with horses, 
and nobody, I presume, has lighter hands or more 
'' faculty " in the management of them than the gen- 
tlemen of England. But the understrappers and 
grooms, the breakers and trainers, lack the sympa- 
thetic understanding, the gentleness and patience, 
that are essential for the proper education of a horse. 
To discover what could be done by the exercise of 
these qualities was, I make bold to say, reserved for 
the American trainer ; and anybody who studies the 



18 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

history of the trotting horse will perceive the truth 
of this statement. 

I read lately of a former well known M. F. H. who 
kept an enormous equine establishment, and yet 
among all his men there was but one lit to be in- 
trusted with the exercise of his best hunters. 

To create the trotter, increasing his speed within 
seventy-five years from a mile in 2.40 to a mile in 
2.08|, was perhaps an even greater achievement than 
the development of the modern thoroughbred in the 
one hundred and fifty years that have elapsed since 
the importation to England of the Godolphin Arabian. 
The utility of the achievement is another matter ; and 
I should confess to some sympathy with the critic 
who was inclined to estimate it lightly. But what- 
ever we may think of the result, whether or not we 
hold that a 2.08 horse is greatly better than a 2.40 
horse, the value of the process by which this result 
was reached can hardly be exaggerated. The trainers 
of the American trotter have taught the world the 
best lesson that it has ever received in the ethics of 
horse-keeping. 

The case of Johnston, the famous pacer, illustrates 
what can be accomplished by humoring the sensitive 
equine disposition. ^' He was," writes John Splan, 
his trainer and driver, '^ the most nervous horse that 
I ever saw, and I found that in shipping him about 
from one track to another he became more nervous 
and irritable. If you left him long alone in the stable, 
he would tramp around like a wild animal, and get 
himself in a sweat. If anybody went into the stall 
next to him, and began to hammer or make anything 
like a loud noise, he would try to climb out of the 



THE ETHICS OF HORSE-KEEPING. 19 

window. Whenever a stranger stepped into his stall 
he would give a snort and back into the farthest cor- 
ner." Splan, with some difficulty, obtained the ser- 
vices of a quiet, faithful '' rubber" or groom called 
^^Dave." Dave procured a dog as additional com- 
pany for Johnston, and these three remained insep- 
arable through the period of Johnston's training. It 
was a matter of course that the groom should sleep 
in the stall, but he never left it, day or night, having 
all his meals brought there. Under this treatment 
Johnston rapidly improved. He became less ner- 
vous, ate better, and in the event lowered the pacing 
record to 2.06;^, a mark which has not yet been sur- 
passed upon a regulation track. 

There remains only one branch of the subject which 
I feel bound to consider, namely, the duty of the 
owner toward the horse that has grown old and in- 
firiij in his service. I say little about the man who 
employs horses in the course of his business ; let him 
settle the matter with his own conscience, though I 
cannot refrain from the obvious remark, that whereas 
it might be a poor man's duty to sell his superannu- 
ated beast for what he would bring, lest his family 
should suffer, so it would be the rich man's duty to 
dispose of his work horses in a different manner. But 
as regards horses bought and used for pleasure this 
general rule seems to me undeniable, that the owner 
is morally bound to protect them from cruelty when 
they become old or broken down. He may do it by 
killing them, or otherwise, as he sees fit. But how 
seldom is this duty performed ! It is neglected, pos- 
sibly, more from thoughtlessness than from intention. 
A span of carriage horses, we will say, after some 



20 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

years of service, lose their style ; they become a little 
stiff, a little '-'sore forward," it may be; one of them, 
perhaps, is suffering from incipient spavin ; and on 
the whole it is thought high time to dispose of them, 
and get a fresher, younger pair. Accordingly, John, 
the groom, is directed to take them to an auction 
stable, and in due course Dives, their old master, re- 
ceives in return a cheque, — a very small cheque, to be 
sure, but still large enough to make a resx^ectable con- 
tribution to foreign missions or to purchase a case of 
champagne. That is all he knows about the transac- 
tion, and he does not allow his mind to dwell upon 
the inevitable results. But let Dives go to the auction 
stable himself ; let him observe the wistful, homesick 
air (for horses are often homesick) with which the 
old favorites look about them when they are backed 
out of the unaccustomed stalls ; then let him stand 
by and see them whipped up and down the stable floor 
to show their tardy paces, and Anally knocked down 
to some hard-faced, thin-lipped dealer. It needs very 
little imagination to foresee their after career. To 
begin with, the old companions are separated, — a 
great grief to both, which it requires a long time to 
obliterate. The more active one goes into a country 
livery stable, where he is hacked about by people 
whose only interest in the beast is to take out of him 
the pound of flesh for which they have paid. He has 
no rest on week days, but his Sunday task is the hard- 
est. On that sacred day, the reprobates of the village 
who have arrived at the perfect age of cruelty (which 
I take to be about nineteen or twenty) lash the old 
carriage horse from one public house to another, and 
bring him home exhausted and reeking with sweat. 



THE ETHICS OF HORSE-KEEPING. 21 

His mate goes into a job wagon perhaps, possibly 
into a herdic, and is driven by night lest his staring 
ribs and the painful lameness in his hind leg should 
attract the notice of meddlesome persons. The last 
stage of many a downward equine career is found in 
the shafts of a fruit pedler's or junk dealer's wagon, 
in which situation there is continual exposure to heat 
and cold, to rain and snow, recompensed by the least 
possible amount of food. It may be that one of the 
old horses whose fate we are considering is finally- 
bought by some poverty-stricken farmer; he works 
without grain in summer, and passes long winter 
nights in a cold and draughty barn, with scanty cov- 
ering, and no bed but the floor. It is hard that 
in his old age, when, like an old man, he feels the 
cold most, and is most in need of nourishing food, he 
should be deprived of all the comforts — the warm 
stall and soft bed, the good blankets and plentiful 
oats — which were heaped upon him in youth. 

If, as is probably the case, the old carriage horse 
has been docked, his suffering in warm weather will 
greatly be increased. That form of mutilation which 
we call docking is, I believe, inartistic and barbarous, 
and I do not doubt that before many years it will be- 
come obsolete, as is now the cropping of horses' ears, 
which was practised so late as 1840. But still I 
should not utterly condemn the owner for docking his 
horses, or buying them after they had been docked, 
which comes to the same thing, if his intention and 
custom were to keep them so long as they lived. 
But to dock a horse, thus depriving him forever of 
his tail, to keep him till he is old or broken down, 
and then to sell him for what he will bring, is the 



22 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

very refinement of cruelty. The Anglomaniacs, to 
whom we owe the revival of docking, should consider 
that in our climate of flies and niosquitos the practice 
is infinitely more cruel than it is in England. 

I have endeavored to show that the horse is an 
animal peculiarly capable of suffering, and to suggest 
some of the ways in which his suffering can be pre- 
vented or alleviated. Of late years, thanks largely 
to anti-cruelty societies, the horse has been less abused 
than was formerly the case. But let any one, and 
especially any one who may have a fancy for the 
human race, consider what awful arrears of cruelty 
to dumb animals have accrued at its hands. Let him 
think of the horses that have been baited to death, as 
bulls are baited ; let him think of the unspeakable 
remedies that have been applied by ignorant farriers 
and grooms, such as the forcing of ground glass into 
the animal's eye ; let him think of the horses that 
have been " whipped sound " in coaches and heavy 
wagons, — that is, compelled by the lash to travel 
chiefly on three legs, one leg or foot being disabled, 
until the overwrought muscles gave out entirely ; let 
him think of the agonies that have been inflicted by 
beating and spurring, of the heavy loads that a vast 
army of painfully lame, of diseased, and even of dying 
horses have been forced to draw. Let him take but a 
single glance at the history of the human race in this 
respect, and another perhaps at his own heart, and 
then declare if it be not true, as was once remarked 
to me,^ "Man deserves a hell, were it only for his 
treatment of horses." 

1 By the late John Boyle O'Reilly. 




II. 



TEOTTING FAMILIES. 



THE American trotting horse is derived from these 
sources : — 
The English thoroughbred.^ 
The Norfolk trotter. 
The Arab and Barb. 
Certain pacers of mixed breeding. 
And just as the best running horses now extant in 

1 A thoroughbred is one all of whose ancestors, back to the 
eighteenth century, are recorded either in the English or in the 
American Stud Book for running horses. The American work is 
a continuation for this country of the English. The first volume 
of the English Stud Book was issued in 1808, and an annual volume 
of each book is published. 

A thoroughbred is, therefore, a horse of pure running stock. 
The orio-in of this stock, which is chiefly Oriental, will be found 
stated briefly at page 118. 



24 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

England are descended from three or four animals 
foaled in the eighteenth century, and bred chiefly 
from Arab importations, so the American trotter of 
to-day can usually be referred to one or more of the 
following ancestors : Messenger, True Briton, and Di- 
omed, thoroughbreds ; Bellfounder, a Norfolk trotter ; 
Grand Bashaw, a Barb ; Pilot, a Canadian pacer ; and 
Blue Bull, a pacer from the State of Ohio. 

Of these horses Messenger has played the greatest 
part. He was a gray, foaled at Newmarket in Eng- 
land in the year 1780, and imported to this country in 
1788. For a thoroughbred, he was a plain, almost 
coarse animal, with a big, bony head, low withers, up- 
right shoulders, and a rather short, straight neck. But 
his shoulders were deep and strong, his loins and quar- 
ters very powerful, his legs flat and clean. He had big 
knees, big hocks ; and his windpipe and nostrils were 
described by a contemporary writer as being " nearly 
twice as large as ordinary." He stood 15| hands high, 
and, " whether at rest or in motion, his legs were always 
in a perfect position." The low withers, the upright 
shoulders, the plain head, Messenger inherited from 
Sampson, his great-grandsire,^ a black horse ; and these 
peculiarities, as well as the black color, were so ex- 
traordinary in a horse of Oriental breeding, that suspi- 
cions have been entertained as to Sampson's pedigree, 
and some writers have asserted that his dam was a Lin- 
colnshire cart mare. But the best authorities do not 
appear to share these painful doubts, and Sampson may 
safely be regarded as a true thoroughbred, close to the 

1 Messenger was by Mambrino, by Engineer, by Sampson, by- 
Blaze, by Flying Childers, by the Parley Arabian. Messenger's dam 
was by Turf, by Matchem, by Cade, by the Godolphin Arabian. 



TROTTING FAMILIES. 25 

Arab foundation. At all events, he was superlatively 
excellent both as a race horse and as a sire, and Mes- 
senger inherited most of his good qualities, but not his 
extreme speed. Messenger, though running bred, was 
a natural trotter, — the more so, perhaps, on account 
of his somewhat straight shoulders and low withers. 
It is true indeed that certain of our very fastest 
trotters, notably Axtell and Palo Alto, have sloping 
shoulders and fairly high withers ; but the Messenger 
or Sampson conformation is that of the typical trotter. 
Maud S.,^ Sunol,^ and Nancy Hanks ^ are built thus. 

Messenger was an animal of great soundness and 
vigor. One who saw him taken off the ship was ac- 
customed to relate that three other horses, his com- 
panions on the long voyage, " had become so reduced 
and weak that they had to be helped and supported 
down the gang-plank ; but when it became Messenger's 
turn to land, he, with a loud neigh, rushed down, with 
a negro on each side holding him back, and dashed up 
the street at a stiff trot, carrying the grooms along in 
spite of all their efforts to bring him to a standstill." 
"When Messenger charged down the gang-plank," 
Hiram Woodruff declared, " the value of not less than 
one hundred million dollars struck our soil." 

Messenger died of colic, at Oyster Bay on Long 
Island, in January, 1808, being then twenty-eight 
years of age, and having attained such a height of 
equine reputation that he was buried with military 
honors, and a charge of musketry was fired over his 
grave. 

1 Her record is 2.08f . 

2 Her record is 2.08^ on a kite-shaped track. 
2 See page 87. 



26 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

Nearly fifty years later, in ISTovember, 1854, an old 
bay horse called Abdallah was turned out on the sands 
of this 3ame Long Island, and abandoned to die of cold 
and starvation. He had been sold for thirty-five dol- 
lars to a fisherman, who attempted to put him in har- 
ness. But Abdallah had never been broken to harness, 
and being of a vicious temper he kicked the fish-wagon 
to pieces, and thereupon the fisherman cruelly cast him 
adrift. Abdallah was a grandson of Messenger,^ and, 
so far as we know, the best of his descendants in that 
generation. He was an ugly, rat-tailed horse, but big, 
strong, tough, and a fast trotter. Unlike the Messen- 
ger stock in general, he had fine sloping shoulders. 
Abdallah was the sire of Rysdyck's Hambletonian,^ 
who founded the noted trotting family called the 
Hambletonians.^ 

The dam of Rysdyck's Hambletonian, known to 
fame as the Charles Kent mare, was of a lineage en- 
tirely different, for her sire was Bellfounder, a Nor- 
folk trotter. Bellfounder was imported in 1822 by 
Mr. James Boott, a rich merchant of Boston, Massa- 
chusetts, who paid seven hundred pounds sterling for 

1 Abdallah Avas sired by Mambrino. Mambrino was by Mes- 
senger, out of a mare by imported Sour-Crout. Abdallah's dam 
was said to be by another son of Messenger. 

'^ The sire of his grandam was called Bishop's " Hamiltonian," 
after Alexander Hamilton. The name was however corrupted to 
"Hambletonian," which was also the name of an English race 
horse bred in Hambleton, a district of Yorkshire. 

3 Of the twenty trotting stallions who stand highest on the list, 
judging by the records of their sons and daughters, all but two are 
descended from Tlysdyck's Hambletonian, either on the paternal or 
maternal side ; and of those two one is also a descendant of Mes- 
senger (in a different line), and the breeding of the other is un- 
known on the dam's side. 



TROTTING FAMILIES. 27 

him. He was a handsome round-built bay horse with 
black poiuts, and he is said to have trotted in England 
nine miles in twenty-nine minutes and thirty-eight 
seconds, and two miles in six minutes. Bellfounder 
was of the same blood from which the modern hackney 
is derived, and of much the same origin as that famous 
Marshland Shales whose name is preserved in the 
works of George Borrow. An old advertising card 
was discovered some years ago, in which it is stated 
that Bellfounder's dam was Velocity. In 1806 Velo- 
city was matched to trot sixteen miles within an hour 
on the Norwich road, and although she broke into a 
gallop fifteen times, '' and as often turned round ^' (that 
being the penalty), she won the match. 

Bellfounder was described as " plump in form and 
muscular ni all his parts," and as having "a fine, 
slashing gait." He contributed to the Hambletonian 
family that mildness of temper for which, unlike 
the earlier Messengers, they have always been distin- 
guished. 

Eysdyck's Hambletonian was an animal of extraor- 
dinary appearance, looking very much as a locomo- 
tive might look if it were turned into a horse witli no 
more changes than were necessary to effect the trans- 
formation. He had a long, round body, like the boiler 
of an engine, of almost the same girth throughout. 
His neck was short and straight, and he had a big, 
ugly head, surmounted by ears which, though large 
and coarse, were a little too well shaped to be posi- 
tively ill-bred. His expression was good, phlegmatic 
but amiable, and full of character. He stood very 
firm and solid, on feet perfect in shape and texture ; 
and his legs were flat, clean, heavily muscled, and free 



28 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

from gumminess or swelling even in his old age. It is 
hardly necessary to add that his tail was set low and 
carried low, for there was nothing ornamental about 
Bysdyck's Hambletonian. His hind quarters were 
very powerful, and he had great length from hip to 
hock. The rump was rather round than sloping. 
Altogether he presented the appearance of a service- 
able, practical beast, lit, when well warmed up, to trot 
for a man's life, as the phrase is, but neither beautiful 
nor lively. In color he took after the Bellfounder 
strain, being a rich, deep bay with black points, and 
this color was transmitted to his descendants with 
singular uniformity.^ 

The Hambletonians, indeed, have a marked family 
resemblance. They are almost always big bay horses, 
with large ears, drooping tails, a long, wide gait, and 
a sleepy disposition. Thus it appears that they are 
ill adapted for roadster purposes, whether in form, in 
action, or in character ; and the predominance of the 
family is, on the whole, to be regretted. It has in- 
creased the speed, but lessened the beauty and dulled 
the spirit of our average harness horse. Hambleto- 
nian himself had no record, but he was undoubtedly 
fast. His chief points of excellence were his long 
trotting gait, his muscular development, the fine qual- 
ity of his bones and sinews. It is estimated that he 
sired about 1,340 foals, and of these only forty made 
records of 2.30 or better. Hambletonian's reputation is 

1 The following measurements of Hambletonian may interest 
certain of my readers. He stood 15.1 at the withers, and 15.3 at 
the rump. His knee was 1.3| inches in circumference, his hock 17|^ 
inches. From the centre of the hip-joint to the point of the hock 
he measured 41 inches ; from the point of the stifle to the point of 
the hock, the length of his thigh Mas 24 inches. 



TROTTING FAMILIES. 29 

established by his more remote descendants, in whom 
the cart-horse qualities inherited from the Bellfouuder 
strain were overcome by an infusion of thoroughbred 
or Arab blood. His best sons were invariably from 
high-bred mares. Perhaps the best of all was Alex- 
ander's Abdallah.^ This grand horse came to an end 
more untimely and no less cruel than that suffered by 
his grandsire Abdallah. In Februar}^, 1865, just be- 
fore the Civil War closed, Alexander's Abdallah was 
stolen by a Rebel guerilla from his owner^s farm at 
Woodburn, Kentucky. The next day he was recap- 
tured by a Federal soldier, ridden fifty miles unshod, 
and then abandoned at the roadside without food or 
shelter. He died a few days later of pneumonia. 
Among his few descendants are Belmont,^ Almont, 
and Thorndale, all of whom founded subordinate trot- 
ting families, and the famous Goldsmith Maid, whose 
career will be glanced* at in a subsequent chapter. 
Other noted sons of Rysdyck's Hambletonian are 
George Wilkes and Electioneer, both of whose dams 
were of the Clay family (presently to be described). 
Volunteer (whose dam was a high-bred mare called 
Lady Patriot), Happy Medium, Harold (the sire of 
Maud S.), Strathmore, Dictator, and Aberdeen. At 
present, the two most popular trotting families are 
those founded by George Wilkes and Electioneer, 
respectively. Both of these horses were bred in ISTew 
York State, but Wilkes passed the greater part of 
his life in Kentucky, and Electioneer stood for many 

1 His dam was a small, wiry bay mare, who showed signs of 
high breeding. Her pedigree is untraced, but she is said to have 
descended from Mambrino, son of Messenger. 

'^ Sire of Nutwood niid of \Ve(]c>:ewood. 



30 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

years at the head of Governor Stanford's famous farm 
in California. He is the sire of Sunol, of Palo Alto, 
whose dam was a thoroughbred, of Arion, and of many 
other fast trotters. 

Neither the Wilkeses nor the Electioneers pure and 
simple are possessed of much style or beauty, nor are 
they suitable for roadster use ; but some of the younger 
branches in each family where other blood has been 
introduced excel in these respects, as well as in 
trotting speed. 

There is another strain descended from Messenger 
scarcely inferior to the Hambletonians in speed, equal 
to them in soundness, and far superior in point of 
elegance and spirit. This is the Kentucky famil}^ of 
Mambrino Chief,^ and more especially of his son, Mam- 
brino Patchen. The dam of Mambrino Patchen was 
the Kodes mare, by Gano,^ a thoroughbred. Mambrino 
Patchen himself was a very beautiful black horse, 
about sixteen hands high, with sloping shoulders, 
high withers, a fine arched neck, a tail well put on and 
well carried. In fact, this whole family is noted for 
the proud and graceful carriage of its tails, so much 
so that some detractors have insinuated that artificial 
means were used to produce this effect. An own 
sister of Mambrino Patchen was Lady Thorne, perhaps 
the best trotting mare, all things considered, ever bred. 
She was a blood bay, 16^ hands high, with the marks 

1 Foaled in 1844; by Mambrino Paymaster, he by Mambrino, a 
thoroughbred son of Messenger. The dam of Mambrino Chief 
cannot be traced, but she was a fine, strong, courageous animal, 
and a great roadster. 

'^ Gano was a son of American Eclipse. The grandam and great- 
grandam of Mambrino Patchen were also half-bred horses of much 
quality, sound and long-lived. 



TROTTING FAMILIES. 31 

of a thoroughbred. Her record is only 2.184, ^^^ she 
beat all the fastest horses of her day, including Dexter, 
Mountain Boy, Goldsmith Maid, American Girl, Lucy, 
and George Palmer, and had it not been for an injury 
to her hip received while she was being taken from 
a car she would doubtless have lowered this record. 
The accident compelled her retirement from the 
turf. There is a tradition that Dan Mace once drove 
Lady Thorne a mile in 2.08 and a fraction, and it is 
fairly well established that she trotted a trial mile 
in 2.\oi. 

The best son of Mambrino Patchen is Mambrino 
King,^ now twenty years of age, but still a prize 
winner at horse shows. There is a singular unanimity 
of opinion about this animal, for, so far as I can as- 
certain, all who have seen him pronounce Mambrino 
King to be the handsomest horse in the world. Such 
is the judgment of Mr. Eobert Bonner, for example, 
in this country, of Mr. Burdett-Coutts in England, and 
of those Continental connoisseurs in horse-flesh who 
have visited this country. Among the latter is Baron 
Pavorot de Kerbeck, a Prench Colonel of Dragoons, 
who, with tAvo other officers, was sent to the United 
States by his government, a few years ago, to inspect 
our horses. He reported : — 

" Mambrino King is the most splendid specimen we 
have had an opportunity of admiring. Imagine an 
Alfred de Dreux, a burnt chestnut, whole colored, 
standing 15.3 hands, with an expressive head, large, 
intelligent, and spirited eyes, well opened lower jaws, 
well set ears, the neck and shoulders splendidly shaped, 

1 His dam was by Edwin Forrest, a half-bred horse raised in 
Kentucky. 



32 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

long, and gracefully rounded off, the shoulders strong 
and thrown back well, the withers well in place and 
top muscular, the ribs round and loins superb, the 
crupper long and broad, limbs exceedingly fine, the 
joints powerful, the tail carried majestically, and all 
the movements high and spirited, — imagine all this, 
and you will have an idea of this stallion. He is as 
fine, if we look at him in front, as he is in his hind 
quarters, the whole animal being an embodiment of 
purity of lines, elegance, and elasticity. He is in fact 
perfection." 

Some years ago Mambrino King was stigmatized by 
many practical horsemen, whose ideal trotter was a 
coarse-bred brute, as the Dude Stallion ; but since his 
sons and daughters have displayed both speed and 
gameness in numerous hard fought races, Mambrino 
King's solid qualities are no longer questioned. . 

Having, then, such horses as Mambrino King, as 
Quartermaster,^ Alcantara,^ Ivy wood,^ and many others 
like them, it seems absurd that we should import for 
our driving hackneys from England, which do not sur- 
pass the American horses just mentioned in any re- 
spect, and are far inferior to them in speed. In this 
connection I will quote a remark from the present 
Duke of Marlborough's account of his visit to the stock 
farms of Kentucky. "The small farmer," he says, 
" drives an animal that would leave the English farmer 
on his way to market in the last parish, while the 
amateur can buy for £150 to £200 a pair of animals 
which could not be obtained in England for double the 

1 A great-grandson of Mambrino Patchen, sired by Alcyone, a 
son of George Wilkes. 

- A grandson of Mambrino Patchen, own brother to Alcyone. 
3 A son of AVedgewood. 



TROTTING FAMILIES. 33 

money, and are able to go at a speed far greater than 
our best Norfolk trotters can manage." 

I have now indicated the two most important trot- 
ting families descended from Messenger, and there are 
others but little inferior. Vermont had the Harris 
Hambletonian, a grandson of Messenger, out of a gray 
" English mare." He was a gray himself, and so were 
most of his descendants. This horse was the sire of 
Sontag, who once beat Flora Temple in a match race, 
and grandsire of the Morse horse, among whose de- 
scendants was Lulu, with a record of 2.14^, and Gov- 
ernor Sprague, a trotting stallion of high reputation. 

Maine had Winthrop Messenger and the Bush Mes- 
senger. The Bush Messengers were almost invariably 
chestnuts. Fanny Pullen, dam of Trustee,^ the hrst 
horse to trot twenty miles within an hour, was a Bush 
Messenger. 

Still another Messenger strain, and one of more 
"quality" than the rest, is that of the Champions. 
In the first quarter of this century, one Mr. John 
Tredwell of Long Island had a pair of extraordinarily 
fast and enduring road mares, called Amazonia and 
Sophronisba, the former being of Messenger descent, 
and the latter a granddaughter of imported Baronet.^ 
In 1823 both of these mares produced foals by Mam- 
brino, son of Messenger. Amazonia's foal was Abdal- 
lah, sire, as we have seen, of the famous Rysdyck's 
Hambletonian, and Sophronisba's foal was Almack, 
sire of Grinnell's Champion,^ first of the name, and 

1 His sire was inipoi-ted Trustee, a thoroughbred. 

- By Vertuniiius out of Peuultima. Barouet, a bay liorse. was 
noted for his beauty. 

3 The dam of Griunell's Champion was by Engineer, and his 
grandam by the famous American Eclipse. 

3 



34 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

founder of the family. This horse was thus de- 
scribed by one who had seen him : — 

"He was a golden chestnut, about sixteen hands, 
with a perfect diamond on his nose, and two white 
socks behind. In his general make-up he partook 
much of the thoroughbred appearance : the lightness 
of his head and neck, his wiry leg and elastic move- 
ment, his glossy coat and waveless mane and tail, 
shaded from a darker hue to a bright tint on the 
edge, — in all a perfect type of the high-bred runner. 
He was exhibited at the State Fair at Auburn, Kcw 
York, in 1848. I can never forget, though I was 
very young at the time, this eventful show, as he 
assumed a position among his rivals which bade 
defiance to the artist. He seemed to realize the ad- 
miration with which he was regarded by the immense 
throng about him." 

The rich chestnut color, the high spirit, the well- 
bred look, displayed by Grinnell's Champion, distin- 
guish the family to this day, and it is probably owing 
more to accident and mismanagement than to any 
deficiency that the Champions are few in number, 
vand of less reputation than the Hambletonians. The 
fastest of the family was the Auburn horse, who 
belonged to Mr. Eobert Bonner.^ 

The Auburn horse was the last of those famous 
trotters which, as one writer remarks with pardona- 
ble extravagance, were stabled in Hiram Woodruffs 
brain. 2 In the autumn of 1864, just before winter 

1 He was a son of King's Champion, his dam being by Ked 
Bird, son of liilly Duroe, by Duroc, son of imported Diomed. 

2 Mr. Woodruff, a genius in the art of horsemanship, and a 
very honest man, was the author of " The Trotting Horse of 
America," b}- far the most interesting work upon the subject. 



TROTTING FAMILIES. 35 

closed in and the ground became frozen, the Auburn 
horse showed a flight of speed that set Mr. Woodruff's 
household and stable in commotion. On alighting 
from the sulky, he declared that he had just been car- 
ried faster than he ever rode before in his life, and 
he made the same remark to ]\Ir. Bonner later in the 
day, when that gentleman paid the stable a visit. 
"But," said Mr. Bonner, "you rode at the rate of 
two minutes to the mile behind Peerless for a quar- 
ter. Do you mean to say that you rode faster behind 
the Auburn horse than behind the gray mare ? " 
Woodruff answered, "Faster than behind the gray 
mare, — faster than I ever rode before behind any 
horse." This was probably true, for he was a man 
not given to overstatement ; but early in the follow- 
ing spring, before the season opened, Hiram Woodruff 
died, and the Auburn horse did not long survive him. 
So much for the chief strains of trotting blood 
derived from Messenger. Next in importance among 
founders of the trotter comes the Barb or Arab, 
Grand Bashaw, who was imported from Tripoli in 
1820. He is described as a very beautiful little black 
horse, about 14.1 high, with a small star in his fore- 
head. He died in Pennsylvania in the year 1845. 
Among his sons was Young Bashaw, a larger and 
much coarser animal, and gray in color like his dam, 
who was Pearl, by Bond's First Consul ; his grandara 
was a Messenger mare. Young Bashaw sired Andrew 
Jackson,^ the fastest trotting stallion of his day, a 
black horse, strong, compact, and short4egged. When 
Andrew Jackson was foaled, his dam was the prop- 
erty of one Daniel Jeffreys, a brickmaker, and the 

1 His dam was a pacer, and nothing more is known of her. 



36 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

first act of the little colt was to tumble into a pit 
where clay had been mixed for making bricks. He 
was rescued from this hole in a very sorry condition, 
and either on account of the accident, or from natural 
weakness, he was unable to stand upright. His pas- 
tern joints bent under his weight, and altogether he 
appeared to be so wretched and worthless a creature 
that Mr. Jeffreys gave orders to have him killed. 
But his wife interceded, begged that the foal's life 
might be spared, and undertook to look after him 
herself. The colt was accordingly permitted to live, 
a little careful nursing soon brought him round, and 
thus, through the pity of a woman, did the ances- 
tor of all the Clays escape being murdered in his in- 
fancy. It is an odd fact that Vermont Blackhawk, 
founder of the trotting branch of the Morgan fam- 
ily, and one of the handsomest horses that ever 
lived, was also condemned to death by his owner 
because of the weak and ugly appearance that he 
first made in the world. In his case it was the 
groom who successfully interceded for his life. The 
same thing is true of Santa Claus, one of the best 
grandsons of Eysdyck's Hambletonian. Andrew Jack- 
son was the sire of Henry Clay, founder of the Clay 
family, his dam being a Canadian trotting mare called 
Surrey, of unknown breeding. 

Some writers assert that Henry Cflay's good quali- 
ties as a trotter were derived from the Messenger 
element in his composition ; but it is a striking fact, 
that in form, in disposition, and in color he resembled 
his great-grandsire Grand Bashaw very closely. He 
was a coal-black horse with a beautiful white cres- 
cent on his face, " very perfect, the line of it extend- 



TROTTING FAMILIES. 37 

ing up and down, that is, one horn above the eyes, 
the other belo\y." He had the curved neck, the fine 
sloping shoulders, the round swelling barrel, the 
small ears, the springy pasterns, the tough, round 
feet of a Barb or Arab horse. In the hind parts, 
however, he took after his dam. His hips were 
sharp, the rump was long and drooping. He had 
great length from hip to hock, the invariable forma- 
tion of a trotter, and his tail was thick and wavy, with 
a few white hairs at the dock. 

" In disposition and temper," writes Mr. Kandolph 
Huntington, '' he was a very lovable horse. The 
last time I went to see him was in October, 1865. 
Henry Clay was then twenty-eight years old. Mr. 
Fellows, who owned him, knew that I loved the old 
horse, and asked me if I would not like to see him out. 
However, not wishing to trouble him, and knowing 
that Henry Clay had long been blind, I answered, 
^Xever mind,' but the door of his box was swung 
wide open, and after a cheerful, '• Come, Henry,' from 
his master, the old horse sailed out into the barnyard 
with as lofty and as sure a step as though he could see 
every spot in which it was possible to place a foot." 

Henry Clay was a horse of great bottom and of 
sound constitution, as is sufficiently proved by the 
fact that he lived to be twenty-nine 3^ears old, notwith- 
standing the hard usage to which he was subjected. 
There is a tradition that he was once driven ninety 
miles in a single day, and started the next afternoon 
in a race which he won. However this may be, it is 
certain that for many years Henry Clay belonged to 
an owner who cruelly abused him. It seems to be 
the natural amusement of a drunken man to ill-treat 



38 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

a horse, and Henry Clay was one of that innumerable 
company of dumb beasts whose fate it has been to 
supply this kind of entertainment for the superior 
animal. When his " peculiar turns were upon him," 

writes one who knew both horse and man, "W 

always wanted to drive Henry Clay. At such times 
the city of Rochester, which is twenty-eight miles 
by road from Geneseo, was the objective point. 
When ready to return, after an experience that tries 
men's nerves, he would get into the wagon, take out 
his whip, and, giving it a wide swing, exclaim, ' One 
hour and a half into my barn,' — which the horse 
had to do. Sometimes his carriage would break down. 
The President of the Livingston Agricultural Society, 
the late M. L. Cummings, wishing at one time to 

see W on some important matters, waited for 

him in his barn, and AV finally drove in hang- 
ing to the dashboard, the hind axle dragging, both 
hind wheels gone. The horse was dripping wet, and 
panting so that Mr. Cummings (a first-class horse- 
man) thought that he would never recover his wind. 
W took out his watch, looked at it, and ex- 
claimed, ' He did it, or I would shoot him. One hour 
and a half, twenty-eight miles ! ' " 

On another occasion W struck Henry Clay 

with a club, breaking one of his ribs, and the injury 
left its mark on the skeleton of the horse, which 
is still preserved in the National Museum at Wash- 
ington. 

The Orloff trotters of Russia were bred in much 
the same way as the Clays, and there is a resemblance 
between the two families. Some years ago there was 
an exhibition of Orloff trotters at a State fair held in 



TROTTING FAMILIES. 39 

Central New York, near the former home of Henry 
Clay, and many farmers who saw the Enssian horses 
there protested at what they considered an imposition. 
'• These are not foreign horses, they are nothing but 
Clays," was their criticism. 

For many years, while the Hambletonian star was 
rising, the Clay family were undervalued and mis- 
represented ; but finally, when it became apparent 
that the most successful Hambletonian sires, George 
Wilkes and Electioneer, were out of Clay mares, and 
that in many other cases Clay blood had helped to 
produce extreme speed, this prejudice was dissipated. 
It seems to be true, however, that there is a slight 
tendency in the family to sulk at critical moments, 
'^t was undoubtedly," says Mr. H. T. Helm,i "a 
mental quality, which, when they were collared by an 
antagonist, and likely to be forced to the utmost, caused 
them to sulk and refuse to do their best." And Mr. 
Helm adds that Boston, the famous four-mile racer, 
and Harry Bassett, his grandson, both exhibited the 
same trait. 

I have stated already the maternal lines coming 
from Clay stock in which chiefly distinction has been 
won. There is also an important California family 
descended from the Clays in the paternal line. This 
is the family founded by The Moor, among whose 
descendants are Sultan, and the son of Sultan, Stam- 
boul, whose record is 2.11. These California Clays 
are very beautiful horses, having almost the finish 
and quality of thoroughbreds.^ 

^ "American Eoadstcr?: and Trotting Horses." A vakiable 
work, of which I sliall make frequent use. 

^ The breeding of this family is as follows : Henry Clay sired 



40 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

It is an interesting fact that the Hambletonians, 
the Mambrino Chiefs, and tlie Clays all have a hall- 
mark, so to say, of their own, not found of course in 
every individual belonging to their blood, but still 
extremely common. In the Hambletonian family this 
is a white hind foot, mottled w^ith black; in the 
Mambrino Chief family, especially in the Mambrino 
Patchen branch, it is one hind leg gray from foot to 
hock ; in the Clays, it is a few gray hairs at the root 
of the tail. 

Having now indicated in a general way three of 
the main sources of trotting speed, — namely, the 
Messenger strain as exhibited especially in the Ham- 
bletonian and Mambrino Chief families, the Bell- 
founder or Norfolk Trotter strain as represented in 
the Hambletonian family, and the Grand Bashaw or 
Barb strain preserved in the Clays, — I come to the 
fourth main source of trotting speed, namely, the 
Morgans, a New England breed. 

In the troubled year 1788, one Colonel De Lancey, 
a King's officer, and a patron of horse racing, was in 
command of a regiment stationed at a point on Long 
Island connected with the mainland by a long bridge. 
As his private charger, the Colonel had a very hand- 
some bay stallion, a thoroughbred, called True Briton,^ 
and afterward Beautiful Bay. 

Cassius M. Clay out of a well-bred but untraced mare. Cassius M. 
Clay sired Clay Pilot out of a mare by Pacine; Pilot (a Canadian 
horse of unknown pedigree), second dam by Gray Eagle, an in- 
bred Diomed. Clay Pilot sired The Moor out of Belle of AVabash, 
a very blood-like animal, a thoroughbred, or nearly thoroughbred, 
granddaughter of imported Fylde. 

1 True Briton was by Lloyd's Traveller, by Imported Traveller. 
Imported (or Moreton's) Traveller was bred by Mr. Crofts. He 



TROTTING FAMILIES. 



41 



Some nameless person, perhaps a patriot ambitious 
to despoil tiie enemy, or, as is more likely, a miscreant 
bent upon plunder, stole this True Briton, and ran 
him across the bridge to Connecticut, and thereupon 
he became an American possession, and was kept at 
East Hartford. This horse was the sire of the bay 
colt afterward known as Justin Morgan. The dam 
of Justin Morgan is represented to have been of the 
Wildair breed. A¥ildair, a horse of the very first 
quality, was imported from England, and afterward 
repurchased at a high price and returned to that 
country. According to other accounts, Justin Mor- 
gan's dam was descended from the Lindsey Arabian, 
a noted animal kept first in Connecticut and after- 
ward in Maryland.! ^t all events, it is probable 

was sired by Partner, grandson of the Byerly Turk, and grandsire 
of King Herod. The dam of Traveller was by Bloody Buttocks, 
the Arabian. The dam of Lloyd's Traveller was by a son of Old 
Fox, out of Miss Belvoir. 

1 The story of this horse is a romantic one. In return for some 
very important service, he was presented by the Emperor of Mo- 
rocco to the captain of a British frigate, who took him on board 
and set sail for home. Being obliged to call at one of the West 
India islands, the captain put the horse ashore in order that he 
might exercise himself in a large enclosed yard near the sea. 
Unfortunately there was a pile of lumber in this yard upon which 
the horse climbed, and, the lumber slipping, he fell and broke three 
of his legs. In the harbor at the time there happened to be also an 
American ship commanded by an acquaintance of the British officer, 
and, as this vessel was intending to remain there for some weeks, 
the horse was given to the American captain, who brought him on 
board, put him in a sling, and succeeded in setting his broken legs. 
The animal finally arrived in the United States in good condition, 
and was sent to Connecticut, where he soon made a reputation. 
He was now called Banger. During the Revolutionary War some 
Virginia officers, including General Plarry Lee, were struck by the 
great excellence of certain horses ridden by soldiers from Con- 



42 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

that she was nearly, if not quite, as well bred as 
True Briton, for so remarkable an animal as Justin 
Morgan could hardly have been a mongrel. 

It must be remembered that at the time when 
Justin Morgan was foaled the typical thoroughbred 
was very unlike the thoroughbred of the present day. 
He was close to the Arab foundation, and conse 
quently he was a shorter-legged, rounder built, more 
compact animal than the race horse of the nineteenth 
century. Such was the famous and beautiful Gim- 
crack,^ foaled in 17G0. It is not surprising, therefore, 
that Justin Morgan, though well-bred, was a chunky 
little horse, with short legs and round quarters. He 
had a fine mane and tail, a short, powerful back, a 
longish body, strong, oblique shoulders, a delicate 
ear, a noble head, and the most intelligent, expressive, 
and courageous eyes that the spirit of a Houyhnhnm 
ever looked out of. He stood fourteen liands only, 
and weighed about nine hundred pounds. He was 
foaled in Springfield, Massachusetts, m 1793, and as 
a two-year-old he was taken in part payment of a debt 
by a school-teacher named Justin Morgan, who brought 
him to Randolph, Vermont. The horse died in 1821, 
near Chelsea, Vermont. 

necticiit. On inquiry, they learned that these horses were sons 
of danger. There were sixty of them, all grays, in a troop com- 
manded by Captain Tallmadge, who is said to have lamented the 
loss of one of them more bitterly than he did the death of a trooper. 
The Virginia gentlemen made up a purse, and sent one Captain 
Lindsey to inspect Kanger, and, if the horse answered the account 
that had been given to them, to purchase him if possible. Captain 
Lindsey accordingly bought lAanger and took him to Virginia, where 
he was known as Lindsey's Aral)ian. He was a gray, high-si)irited, 
of a proud and commanding appearance. 

1 Gimcrack was by Cripple, by the Godolphin Arabian. He 
stood onlv 14.1 hands. 



TROTTING FAMILIES. ^^i 

Justin Morgan was no trotter, and not till the third 
or fourth generation did a trotter arise in his family^ 
but he was distinguished in three ways, as a draught 
horse, as a short-distance runner, and as a military 
charger or i^arade horse. In his day there were n(^ 
race-courses and no stated races in Vermont ; but when 
the sporting element gathered at a tavern on a spring 
or summer evening, they were wont to amuse them- 
selves by running their horses on the level road in 
front of the tavern, the prize being a gallon of rum, 
and in these races Justin Morgan is said never to have 
been beaten. On the same occasions a contest would 
often be had in pulling logs ; and when the other horses 
concerned had done their best, it was the custom of 
Justin Morgan's owner to hitch him to the heaviest 
log that had been stirred, then to jump on himself, 
and the little horse never failed to move the load. 
When ridden at a muster, his proud carriage made 
him the cynosure of all eyes ; and he Avas so intelli- 
gent and tractable that women could ride him. In 
fine, Justin Morgan was an animal of extraordinary 
utility and style. To an extraordinary extent, also, 
he stamped his image and impressed his qualities upon 
his descendants. 

Unfortunate indeed is the American in whose ears 
those magic words, " Morgan horse," awake no recol- 
lection, or not even a thrill of sympathetic interest. 
For nearly a century the Morgans have served the 
farmer, the stable-keeper, the minister, the country 
doctor, the mounted militiaman, and all other people 
who desired to travel quickly or to be carried hand- 
somely. Wonderful truly (and perhaps at times a 
little apocryphal) are the stories of Morgan intelli- 



4-i ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

geiice, of Morgan speed, and of Morgan endurance, 
that are told by the dim light of a lantern in many 
a country livery stable in Northern New England. 
I remember — But at present we are concerned with 
the Morgan merely as a trotter, and so I reserve 
iny stories of Morgan roadsters for a subsequent 
chapter. 

Justin Morgan's finest son was Sherman, whose dam 
was a small but highly bred chestnut mare. Sherman 
himself, a bright chestnut in color, stood no taller than 
a pony, for he measured only 13| hands. He weighed, 
however, 925 pounds. Sherman was the sire of Ver- 
mont Black Hawk, and Vermont Black Hawk founded 
a trotting family. His dam was a half-bred "Eng- 
lish " mare from New Brunswick. She stood sixteen 
hands high, and weighed about eleven hundred pounds. 
Vermont Black Hawk was foaled in 1833 ; he was a 
little under fifteen hands, and jet-black in color. This 
horse, besides being a trotter, had every quality of a 
good roadster ; he was strong, speedy, enduring ; he 
had a lively but pleasant disposition, and he was re- 
markably handsome. His back was short, he carried 
his head high, and he possessed that elastic " trappy " 
gait which is the true roadster way of going. 

His most distinguished son was Ethan Allen, a very 
beautiful little bay horse, whose dam was a highly 
bred gray^ mare, said to be of Messenger descent. 
Ethan Allen's trotting action was wonderfully smooth 
and pure. He has a record of 2.15 '^ with running 

1 Both the black color of his sire and the gray color of his dam 
are very infrequent in the descendants of Ethan Allen. They are 
commonly bays or chestnuts. 

- H. B. Winship, a descendant of Ethan Allen, has since trotted 
a mile in 2.06 with running mate. 



TROTTIiNG FAMILIES. 45 

mate, and lie was, I believe, the iirst liorse to be driven 
in that somewhat ridiculous fashion. The manner is, 
to provide strong breeching covered with sheepskin, 
and to make the traces of the runner shorter than 
those of his mate. The runner thus pulls the trotter 
along, very much as a boy is pulled by a wagon when 
he '• cuts behind,*' and hangs on to the tail-board. 

Ethan Allen's record in single harness is 2.25^. 
This discrepancy of lOj- seconds between his record 
with and his record without a running mate is greater 
than it should be, and is probably due chiefly to the 
fact that his hind legs were faulty, his hocks being 
somewhat weak, and his pastern joints too long and 
delicate, so that he could not maintain his speed except 
for a short distance. These defects he inherited from 
his dam. One who knew the horse well wrote of him : 
" He works with the least possible waste of motion. 
His stride is as precise as the stroke of a pendulum, 
and so true does he carry his body, so graceful his 
head and neck, and so animated his carriage, that he 
seems to ' light up ' all over, and presents a most per- 
fect, sylph-like form of elegance." 

The best son of Ethan Allen was Daniel Lambert, 
who became the most distinguished progenitor of trot- 
ters that has appeared m the Morgan family. His 
dam was Fanny Cook, a chestnut, and a daughter of 
Abdallah, son of Messenger and sire of Rysdyck's 
Hambletonian. Thus m Daniel Lambert the Messen- 
ger and Morgan strains were united, and tliis combina- 
tion has since produced many fast trotters.^ In Daniel 
Lambert disappeared the faulty conformation that 
Ethan Allen inherited from his dam, and he was not 

1 Notably .Jack. -M2^. and l>anilico. 2.16|. 



46 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

inferior in beauty to his sire or grandsire. He was a 
chestnut, witli mane and tail some shades lighter, the 
mane being very silky, and the tail long, wavy, and 
well carried. This peculiar coloring of two shades of 
chestnut is still very common in the ]jambert family, 
a,nd, seen at its best, nothing could be more striking or 
picturesque. The Lamberts are apt to be a little hot- 
headed, but they are intelligent, docile when properly 
treated, very spirited, speedy, and courageous. Per- 
haps it would be no exaggeration to say that the finest 
gentlemen's roadsters bred m this country have been 
of Lambert stock. Daniel Lambert himself was a 
horse of commanding style and of magnificent carriage. 
For many years he was kept in the vicinity of Boston, 
but late in life he was brought back to Middlebury, 
Yt., Avhere he had been raised. On this occasion all 
the inhabitants turned out with a brass band to wel- 
come him home, and there was a procession through 
the village streets. " The old horse," relates an eye- 
witness of the scene, " kept time to the music, and was 
the proudest creature that ever walked on earth." 

I have mentioned the pacer as one source of trotting 
speed. Why he should be such is a problem much dis- 
cussed, and not yet solved, although an important sug- 
gestion on this subject has been contributed by Hark 
Comstock. ^ He conjectures that the pacing gait is 
apt to result when thoroughbred horses are first crossed 
with ordinary mares ; and he shows that pacers have 
been common in those parts of the country where this 
condition obtained. Moreover, there is, I believe, no 
case where a very fast trotter has come from pacing 

^ Noni de guerre of INIr. Peter C. Kellogg, au original and in- 
structive writer on the trotting horse. 



• TROTTING FAMILIES. 47 

stock, except when this blood was qualified by that of 
high-bred horses. The great Smuggler ^ was of pacing- 
thoroughbred descent. Both Maud S. and Jay-Eye-See 
are descended on the maternal side from a Canadian 
pacer. Their grandsire was Pilot, or, as he is now 
more commonly called, Old Pacing Pilot, — a Canadian 
horse with all the characteristics of that race. He 
was coal-black, with a long, thick, "wavy" maue and 
tail, and hairy fetlocks. He stood a little under hfteen 
hands. His head was plain, but not coarse, his neck 
fairly long ; he had a sloping rump, and his hocks were 
well let down. He w^as a very muscular, compactly 
built, stout, tough horse, full of "character," and he 
could pace a mile in 2.26, carrying a weight of one 
hundred and sixty pounds on his back. Pilot was a 
typical Canadian, descended probably from ]^orman 
horses brought into Canada by the French, and ren- 
dered smaller, tougher, and longer-haired by the 
severe climate and rough fare. 

By far the best son of Old Pacing Pilot was Pilot 
Jr., a handsome gray horse, w^hose dam was ISTancy 
Pope, a Diomed mare, nearly if not quite thorough- 
bred ; and it was Pilot Jr. who sired the dams of both 
Maud S. and Jay-Eye-See. 

There is another trotting family descended from a 
pacer, which is far more numerous though somewhat 
less distinguished than the family of Pilot Jr. Many 
years ago there was in the mountainous part of Ohio 
an extraordinary looking horse owned by a man named 
Merring. This horse was dubbed "Merring's Blue 
Bull " by the local wag, — " Blue " on account of his 
color (which was that rare shade commonly known 

1 See page 100. 



48 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



? ^^^^^'^^^ 



as mouse-color), "Bull " ou account of liis thick neck, 
— and the name Blue Bull, thus given in scorn, be- 
came in the third generation a badge of honor. Mer- 
riug's Blue Bull had a son called Pruden's Blue Bull, 
no less remarkable in appearance than his sire. He 
was a big horse, at least IQh hands high, weighing 
twelve hundred pounds, — a mouse-colored beast with 
a white face, a black stripe down his back, three white 
feet, and legs marked like those of a zebra. 

A writer in the American Horse Breeder gives the 
following description of him : " He was a deep mouse- 
color, generally called blue, blazed face, glass eyes, 
heavy black mane and tail, black stripe down his back, 
legs white to the knees, and from there up had yel- 
low stripes around them. He was a powerfully built, 
heavy-bodied, close-ribbed horse, with an enormous 
beefy neck, a natural pacer, and ungainly in action. 
Many of this family were natural pacers, and but few 
proved to be good riding horses, on account of their 
awkward and stumbling gait. They were, however, a 
strong, tough, hardy race of horses, and served admi- 
rably for heavy teaming in this hilly country before 
the days of turnpikes and railroads." 

Herring's Blue Bull and his son Pruden's Blue Bull 
were, then, clumsy pacing cart horses, and Wilson's 
Blue Bull, son of Pruden's Blue Bull, looked much 
like his sire and grandsire ; and yet he is the founder 
of a trotting family almost if not quite as numerous 
as the Wilkeses or the Electioneers. Wilson's Blue 
Bull, the only Blue Bull up to his day who had at- 
tained the slightest distinction, was foaled in 1844. 
" His appearance," as related by an experienced horse- 
man, "was the most peculiar I ever saw. From a 



TROTTING FAMILIES. 49 

side view oue would judge liiin to be a draught liorse, 
but a front or rear view would dispel the illusion. His 
hind legs were sickle-shaped, front knees sprung back- 
wards, legs wide and thin, very short from knees down, 
great length of arms, with muscles long and massive, 
hips extending so far forward and shoulders so far 
backward that there was not length enough of back 
for an ordinary riding saddle to be properly adjusted. 
He seemed to be made of hips and shoulders, but had 
good length of belly. His only gait was a pace. I 
have often seen him pace with a running horse beside 
him, and for a few hundred yards he would always 
come out ahead." 

He had a sleek, short coat, and this and his sloping 
shoulders were his only indications of good breeding. 
As he was the single son of Pruden's Blue Bull, and 
the single grandson of Herring's Blue Bull, to attain 
reputation as a trotting sire it is fair to assume that 
he derived his good qualities in great measure from 
his dam. She was a ''sorrel chestnut," about 15.1 
high, with good trotting action, considerable speed, 
and great endurance. On one occasion she was ridden 
eighty-seven miles in eleven hours by a man who 
weighed one hundred and eighty pounds. Her sire 
was Young Selim, of a family called Truxton,i and 
Young Selim is supposed to have been a half-bred. 
Early in life Wilson's Blue Bull lost an eye, and was 
deformed by a lack which broke one of his fore legs. 
Thus his extraordinary and ugly appearance was 

1 The orijrinal Truxton, a son of Diomed, was owned and 
raced by President Jackson. General Stonewall Jackson's favorite 
charger was a sorrel called Truxton, probably a member of the 
same familv. 



50 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

lieigiitened, and, until a few chance colts by him 
began to show great speed, he was held in the very 
lowest estimation.^ Moreover, his descendants are 
remarkable not only for speed, but for beauty and 
finish, and the term " Blue Bull " now suggests 
qualities the very opposite of those for which it 
was given. The Blue Bulls, however, are thought to 
lack gameness. 

Of the six horses that I mentioned in the beginning 
of this chapter as being, in a general way, the founda- 
tion stock of the American trotter, there remains only 
one to be described, and that is Diomed, a thorough- 
bred, and a contemporary of Messenger. Messenger 
as a sire of running horses was a failure. Of all his 
foals, only one, a filly called Miller's Damsel,"^ at- 
tained distinction on the running track ; but Messen- 
ger, though running bred, had good trotting action, and 
the gift of imparting it to his numerous descendants. 
Thus, as we have seen, he played a leading part in the 
development of the trotter. 

The case of Diomed is very different. He was a 
successful runner himself, and from him descend the 
stanchest, speediest runners that have appeared on 
the American turf. But he was not a trotter nor a 
sire of trotters, and his foals were few in number, so 
that upon the general harness horses of the country 
the influence of his blood was very slight. On what 
ground, then, can he be regarded as one of the half- 
dozen foundation horses from which the American 
trotter is chiefly derived ? 

1 He began his career precisely as did the Godolphin Arabian, 
and his value was discovered in the same accidental manner. 
'^ And her dam was by a son of Diomed. 



TROTTING FAMILIES. 51 

Diomed owes this distinction to the high quality of 
a few trotters that have descended from him in the 
maternal line. If the pedigree of all horses that have 
made 2.o0 or better were consulted, Diomed's name 
would appear so seldom as to make his part in the 
development of the trotter seem very insignificant. 
But when the pedigrees of the select few that have 
trotted in say 2.12 or better are examined, Diomed's 
name appears so frequently as to suggest something 
more than a series of coincidences. 

Before stating a few of these cases, I will take a 
brief glance at Diomed's history. The first " Derby " 
was run at Epsom on May 4, 1780, and it was won by 
a "compact, well formed chestnut colt, the property 
of Sir Charles Bunbury." This was Diomed. He 
was bred by the Hon. Eichard Vernon, of Newmarket, 
and foaled in 1777. Diomed was by Florizel, by King 
Herod, and his dam was the famous Spectator mare.^ 

James Rice, who wrote a History of the British Turf, 
says : " It has been the fashion to underrate the Derby 
victory of Diomed, but the history of his three-year-old 
career on the turf shows that he was a good performer, 
and won or received a forfeit in all his engagements, 
proving himself thereby one of the best three-year-olds 
of his time." 

Diomed was brought to this country in 1799; having 
been purchased for the small sum of fifty guineas, at 
the age of twenty -two, and he died in 1808, which was 
also the year of Messenger's death. He left, as I have 

1 To sliow the Oriental richness of his pedii^ree, it is sufficient to 
state that he traces to the Leeds Arabian nine times ; to the Darley 
Arabian seven times; to the Ryerly Tnrk five times; to Cnrwen's 
Ray Barb twice; to the Bakl Galloway once; to the Godolphin 
Arabian twice ; to Flying Childers four times ; etc. 



52 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

said, only a few foals in this country, — less than a 
hundred ; but those few appear conspicuously in the 
pedigrees of our fastest horses, whether at the running, 
the trotting, or the pacing gait. 

The best son of Diomed was Sir Archy, foaled on 
the banks of the James River, in Virginia, in the year 
1805.^ Sir Archy was a thoroughbred of the very first 
breeding, the speediest, gamest race-horse of his day, 
and his descendants have not been unworthy of their 
origin. Sir Archy was of a rich bay color, with one 
white hind foot, and he is thus described by Frank 
Forester : "He was a horse of commanding appear- 
ance, standing fully sixteen hands in height, possess- 
ing great power and substance. He was eminently 
superior in all those points indispensable to the turf 
horse and mainly contributory to strength and action. 
His shoulder, one of the most material parts of the 
horse, was strikingly distinguished, being very deep, 
fairly mounting to the top of the withers, and ob- 
liquely inclined to the hips. His girth was full and 
deep, back short and strong, thighs and arms long and 
muscular, and bone of excellent quality. His front 
appearance was fine and commanding, his head and 
neck being beautifully formed, the latter rising well 
out of his withers. Take Sir Archy as a whole, and 
he had more size, power, and substance than are often 
seen combined in the full-bred horse." 

Sir Archy beat all the best horses of his day in this 

1 His dam Avas the imported mare Castiaiiira by Rockiugham. 
Rockingham was the best sou of Flighflyer, who in turn was the 
best sou of King Herod, one of the horses to whom all the fastest 
thoroughbreds are said to trace. The dam of Rockingham was 
Purity, by Matchem, another member of the great trio just indi- 
cated, out of the famous mare known as Squirt. 



TROTTING FAMILIES. 58 

country, and liis owner cliallenged the world at four- 
mile heats. Boston, a grandson of Sir Archy, started 
in forty-five races and won forty, of which thirty were 
races of four-mile heats. Lexington, son of Boston, 
was also a noted long-distance runner. Both Boston 
and Lexington were inbred to Diomed. 

When we turn to the very fastest trotters and pacers, 
we find, as I have stated, that the blood of Diomed, 
chiefly through his son Sir Archy, figures not very 
remotely in their pedigrees. Thus, Miss Russell, dam 
of Maud S. and of Nutwood, i was out of Sally Russell, 
a daughter of Boston, and the dam of Miss Russell's 
sire. Pilot Jr., was by Havoc, by Sir Charles, a grand- 
son of Diomed. The grandam of Jay-Eye-See was by 
Lexington. 

The dam of the wonderful Arion, whose two-year- 
old record is 2.10|, was by Nutwood, just mentioned. 
In the pedigree of Direct, the pacer who holds the 
fastest record, of Allerton, of Nancy Hanks, and of 
others scarcely inferior, will be found a double, and 
sometimes a triple and quadruple cross of Diomed 
blood. If it be asked what essential quality these 
horses may be supposed to derive from Diomed, the 
answer would be that it is gameness, endurance, or 
"nerve force." Speaking generally, Messenger con- 
tributed the action, and Diomed contributed the inward 
spirit, both of which are necessary to bring a trotter 
to the wire m superlatively fast time. 

Other thoroughbreds that figure largely in trotting 
pedigrees are Trustee, Glencoe, and Margrave ; and it 
is a notable fact that all these names, as well as the 

1 His record is 2.18^, and no less than seventy-five of his sons 
and daughters, including pacers, are in the 2.30 list. 



54 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

name of Diomed, appear iii the pedigree of Dame 
Winnie, 1 the thoroughbred dam of Palo Alto, the 
fastest trotting stallion yet produced. 

A controversy has raged bitterly among fanciers of 
the trotting horse, and still rages, as to the amount 
of thoroughbred blood that is desirable in a trotter. 
The anti-thoroughbred party declare that " trotting 
instinct " is what makes a trotter trot, and that every 
thoroughbred cross tends to weaken this " trotting 
instinct." The other party maintain that superlative 
speed for a mile or more, at any gait, be it run, trot, 
or pace, can be obtained only through the courage, 
through the bone and sinew, of the thoroughbred. 
In their view, the ideal pedigree for a trotting horse 
is one which contains only just enough cold blood 
to furnish the requisite action, — that bending of 
the knee and long stroke of the hind leg which are 
not natural to the thoroughbred. Electioneer, for 
example, had excellent trotting action, and trans- 
mitted it to his colts from thoroughbred or half- 
bred mares. 

This is not the place to engage in the controversy, 
but I cannot resist making two remarks that bear 
upon it. First, then, beauty, style, a high spirit, intel- 
ligence, and courage ; these surely are desirable quali- 
ties in a trotter, — the last named is an indispensable 
quality, — and their only source is thoroughbred 
or Arab blood. But secondly, in a degree, there is 

1 Dame Winnie, a chestnut, is by Planet, by Revenue, by Trus- 
tee. Planet's dam was Nina by Boston. The dam of Dame Winnie 
was Liz Mardis by Glencoe. The second dam of Dame Winnie 
was Fanny G by Margrave. Her third dam was Lancess by Laiice, 
by American Eclipse. The fourth dam of Dame Winnie was by 
Aratus, son of Director by Sir Archy. 



TROTTING FAMILIES. 55 

such a thing as a trotting thoroughbred. That is, 
Avhen a family of trotters has been subjected for a 
considerable period to race-horse usage, it tends to 
acquire race-horse or thoroughbred traits. Courage, 
a tine nervous organization, muscle, and lung power 
are developed by the severe contests, the high feed- 
ing, the careful training, which fall to the lot of a 
trotter, and when this process has been continued for 
some generations its effects are marked. 

The breeding of trotters is only beginning to be 
a science. In the early days, pedigrees were very 
slightly considered, and the transmission of qualities 
was not appreciated or understood. Then came a 
period when the value of pedigree was over-esti- 
mated ^ or, more correctly, wiien the value of such 
trotting pedigrees as we had was over-estimated. It 
must be remembered that the trotter is not a fixed 
type j he is commonly of mixed descent, and therefore 
members of the same family, own orothers and sisters, 
for example, may differ widely in capacity. This is 
true of course, in some degree, of thoroughbreds, 
but it is far less true of them than it is of trotters. 
Almost any thoroughbred in training can run a mile 
in 1.42 or 1.43, and as the fastest will run it in 1.354^ 
or thereabout, the difference between them is not very 
great. But the- fastest time for a mile at the trotting 
gait is 2.08^, and there are many very well-bred 
trotters who cannot trot a mile faster than three or 
even four minutes. This wide difference is accounted 
for by the fact that the trotter has scarcely emerged 
from the mongrel state, and consequently the own 
brother of a very superior animal may " throw back," 
either in himself or in his descendants, to some an- 



56 ' ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

cestor of inferior CLUiility, There is an example of 
this in the family of Maud S. Harold, her sire, is 
also the sire of thirty other trotters, whose record is 
2.30 or better. Harold has a brother called Lakeland 
Abdallah, far superior to himself in size, in beauty, 
and in apparent power, and yet as a sire of trotters 
Lakeland Abdallah has been an utter failure. He 
has but a single representative in the 2.30 list. Of 
course his opportunities have been less than those of 
Harold, but still they have been considerable. 

However, by a process of selection, these discrepan- 
cies are diminishing. One by one, those branches of 
a trotting family in which speed has not been shown 
are dropped ; only successful sons of successful sires 
and grandsires are looked to for the transmission 
of speed. The lines are drawn in, comparatively 
few strains are cultivated, and thus a thoroughbred 
trotter tends to be evolved. It is probable that in 
the near future the breeder will be able to predict 
of a given animal, This horse will trot in 2.20 ; and 
doubtless fifty or one hundred years hence a much 
higher rate of speed will be insured by certain lines 
of breeding. 

It is commonly believed that horses, as a rule, ta,ke 
their form and gait from their sire, and their dis- 
position and nervous system from the dam ; and there 
are many facts which appear to support this theory. 
Certain horses, conspicuous among whom is Mam- 
brino Patchen, have had their reputation made chiefly 
by their daughters, and for this reason they are called 
" Great Brood Mare sires." Pilot Jr. is another 
noted member of this class. On the other hand, 
Rysdyck's Hambletonian, and many other famous 



TROTTING FAMILIES. 57 

horses, are distinguished more through their sons than 
through their daughters. Now Mambrino Patchen 
and Pilot Jr. excelled in nervous energy which they 
derived from the thoroughbreds in their ancestry ; 
whereas Hambletonian excelled in gait and structure, 
and was deficient in nervous energy. Hence it would 
seem to be true that tlie outward form is derived 
chiefly from the sire, and the inward energy from the 
dam, inasmuch as Hambletonian's sons, inheriting 
his superior structure and gait, surpass his daughters ; 
and Mambrino Patchen's daughters, inheriting his 
superior nervous system, surpass his sons. However, 
these general rules are subject to many exceptions. 

But there is one jjrinciple in relation to trotting 
horses which is, I think, admitted on all sides. The 
single quality that the " record breakers " have in 
common is nervous energy, — that mental or physical 
trait, or that relation between the mind and the body, 
which enables or compels the muscular system to 
accomplish the utmost of which it is capable. A 
good shape, good lung power, good action, — these of 
course are indispensable, and they are found in many 
a trotting-bred horse ; but the motive power which 
lies back of the mechanism ultimately determines 
the animal's speed for a mile, if not for a quarter; 
and it is chieflj'in this power that the record-breakers 
excel their contemporaries. 

Now, if, as we may safely assume, it is nervous 
energy and courage that make a horse trot superla- 
tively fast, and if, as may reasonably be conjectured, 
these qualities are derived chiefly from the maternal 
side, then we shall believe that the dam and grandam 
in a pedigree are of more consequence than the sire 



58 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



, XXl.^V>iV, 



and grandsire/ And the facts seem to bear out this 
conclusion. It is extraordinary how many short 
trotting pedigrees end with " a mare of unknown 
breeding, but a great roadster." Sucli, for example, 
was the dam of Mambrino Chief. Sometimes, in- 
deed, the maternal ancestor has possessed too much 
energy even for roadster purposes. Green Mountain 
Maid, the dam of Electioneer, was so high-strung that 
her owner abandoned the attempt to break her to 
harness. It is said of Lady Duval, a Glencoe mare, 
and the mother of two or three trotters, that "so 
extreme was her nervous ambition, unless she was 
permitted to rush ahead as soon as she reached the 
level stretches of the roadway, she would gallop 
sometimes for ten miles without cessation, and 
then, when she finally concluded to behave herself, 
she would settle down into a long, low, level stride 
that reminded one of the daisy-cutting movement of 
Lady Thorne." Many other similar examples might 
be cited. 

" Notice in a field of brood mares," remarks a keen 
observer,^ "the one that herds, drives, and dominates 
all the others, and (if the remaining qualities of ac- 
tion, blood, and soundness are equal) you can always 
select her ladyship as the most successful brood mare 
in the paddock." 

The truth seems to be that great trotters, like great 
men, inherit from their mothers what has aptly been 
termed the subtle ambition to succeed. 

1 Such is the opinion of the oldest horse breeders iu the world, — 
the Arabs. With them a horse is always considered as belonging 
to the family of his dam, not to that of his sire. 

- Mr. S. T. Harris. 




III. 



TROTTING HORSES. 



THE trotting horse plays an important part in the 
daily life of the whole commnnity, being con- 
cerned, as Dr. Holmes has pointed out, even in the 
early conveyance of milk-cans and in the prompt 
delivery of fresh rolls. These humble offices have 
actually been performed by horses who afterward 
acquired fame upon the track. Several years ago an 
old Dutchman, living in Western New York and en- 
gaged in the milk business, was astonished and not a 
little frightened by the pace which his beast set up 
one frosty morning. The cart was bounced over the 
pavements of the city where his route lay, the cans 
hopped and rattled in their seats, and the driver lost 
his breath. But he had no sooner recovered it than 



60 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

he began to boast of the wonderful speed at which 
the horse had carried him, and tliereafter the animal 
was taken out, harnessed to a buggy, on Saturday 
afternoons and like occasions, for a brush on the 
road with the fast trotters of tlie neighborhood, all 
of whom he outstripped. Within a few weeks the 
Dutchman's son, who had been brought up in this 
country, procured an old sulky, and put the milk- 
wagon steed in some sort of training. In two 
months' time they appeared at a track, engaged in a 
race with veteran drivers and horses of established 
reputation, and beat them all in three straight heats, 
— a wonderful achievement for a green trotter and 
jockey, and an immense surprise to the professional 
persons who had jeered at the uncouth appearance 
of the newcomers. 

This case bears out Dr. Holmes's illustration of 
the milk-cart ; nor is the other example that he sug- 
gests without foundation in fact. Some years ago, a 
baker's mare in Boston, after delivering her rolls and 
brown bread in the city one day as usual, was driven 
to Saugus, a distance of about eight miles, and started 
in a match race at the track there. In the exuber- 
ance of her spirits she ran away in the first heat, 
and went around the course once or twice before she 
could be stopped. But being allowed to start again, 
notwithstanding this irregularity, she won the race, 
and finished her day's work by bringing the baker 
back to Boston, and beating all the horses that en- 
gaged with her on the road home. 

It must not be supposed, however, that these ani- 
mals were entirely of plebeian origin. The milk- 
man's horse had a dash of thorouglibred in his 



TROTTING HORSES. 61 

composition, and the baker's mare belonged to the 
incomparable Morgan strain. Indeed, it never hap- 
pens that a horse who is not connected more or less 
closely with the eqnine aristocracy becomes distin- 
guished as a trotter. There is a popular superstition 
that Flora Temple, Dexter, and other celebrated 
animals, were of obscure birth, and began life in 
humble situations ; but this, as I shall presently 
show, is not the case. Dutchman,^ to be sure, an 
old-time trotter of great courage and bottom, was 
first used in a string team at Philadelphia to haul 
brick ; but he was a horse of good breeding. He 
was a bay gelding, fifteen hands three inches high, 
very powerfully made, bony and strong, witli a plain 
but resolute face, and a fine neck and head. Dutch- 
man's time for three miles, namely, 7.41, remained 
the best on record from the year when it was made, 
1839, till 1872, when Huntress,^ a beautiful bay mare, 
reduced it to 7.211 

There is another reason why every American ought 
to take an interest in the trotter. Trotting, like 
base-ball, is, as its votaries often remark, a national 
sport, — national in the sense not only that it is 
popular among us, but that it was created by us ; and 
consequently anybody in the United States who fails 
to take an interest in it is so far forth out of touch 
with his countrymen. There is something lacking in 
him, — some obscure though doubtless valuable trait, 
which, if he possessed it, would certainly make him 
interesting in other directions, but which is most 
conspicuously revealed in a fondness for the track. 

1 Dutchman was by a grands(jn of Messenger ; and his dam is 
said to have been by a son of Messenger. 

2 By Vohinteer. Her dam was a Star mare. See page 69. 



62 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

Running horses furnish a spirited and beautiful sport, 
but the runner can never be domesticated ; whereas 
any man who owns a single horse may find himself 
in the possession of a trotter, or at least of an animal 
which he considers to be such, — and this comes to 
nearly the same thing. The very beast who drags 
a family carryall may, like the milkman's or the 
baker's nag, prove worthy of a better fate. It must 
be remembered that few horses trot fast naturally. 
They require skilful driving and training ; often, also, 
the judicious application of weights, boots, rollers, 
and the like, in order to lengthen their stride or to 
correct other imperfections in their gait. It is pos- 
sible, therefore, for a horse to have "the making of 
a trotter in him " during an indefinite period 5 and 
so long as the owner refrains from putting his in- 
choate racer to the test, his opportunity for boasting 
about the animal's latent speed is almost unlimited. 
Scoffers may throw cold water upon his pretensions, 
but no man can assert absolutely that he is wrong. 

What, then, does a trotter look like ? That is a 
question very hard to answer. Trotting horses range 
in size and shape from Great Eastern, — a big, long- 
legged horse, standing seventeen hands, who holds 
the best saddle record, namely, 2.15f , — to Little 
Dot, a pony of Morgan extraction, weighing six hun- 
dred and seventy-five pounds, who was raised in l^ew 
Brunswick about twenty-five years ago, grew up with 
a flock of sheep, was knocked about by a drunken 
sailor, and finally, coming into the hands of a horse- 
man, made a record of 2.26J. Nevertheless, there 
are two or three trotting types. Frank Forester re- 
marked that American trotting horses reminded him 



TROTTING HORSES. 63 

strongly of Irish himters ; and this is not strange, 
for, as a rule, the best American trotters, like 
Irish hunters, are partly thoroughbred. The Duke 
of Marlborough has made recently a similar state- 
ment. " The type," he says, " is something of the 
class of the English hunter with a shorter head, and 
not quite such good shoulders." Palo Alto, Stamboul, 
and Nelson ^ are examples of this type, except that 
their heads are not short. Allerton and Axtell are 
more stockily built, and show less quality ; Arion, 
again, is much smaller and somewhat finer than 
they. These are the fastest six stallions now on 
the track. They all, with the exception of Arion, 
stand higher at the withers than at the rump. 

A more common type, perhaps, is that exemplified 
in the three mares holding the fastest records, namely, 
Sunol, Maud S., and Nancy Hanks. ^ These are on 
the racing machine order ; they are somewhat narrow- 
chested ; their necks are straight; they stand higher 
at the rump than at the withers. Sunol is a large 
mare, sixteen hands high. Maud S. and Nancy Hanks 
are smaller. The trotter of the present day is repre- 
sented best perhaps by these last two mares ; but it 
is probable that the trotter of the future will more 
nearly resemble Palo Alto and Stamboul. 

When it comes to details of form, the difficulty 
of fixing general rules is even greater. If there be 
one invariable feature in a trotting horse it is prob- 
ably this : great length from hip to hock. Such was 
Messenger's conformation, derived, it is said, from 

1 Nelson is a beautiful horse, of Hambletonian, Morj^an, and 
thoroughbred descent. 

- Nancy Hanks, it may be mentioned, was the maiden name of 
Abraham Lincoln's mother, near whose birthplace the mare Avas 
raised. 



64 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

Sampson. Great length from hip to hock implies a 
short cannon bone in the liincl leg, and a short cannon 
bone in front is also the badge of a trotter. Smug- 
gler and Stamboul are the only notable exceptions 
to this rule that T recall. Wide hips are apt to be 
found in a trotting horse : this is especially true of 
the Clay family. Rysdyck's Hambletonian had a 
round rump, but a sloping rump is more common in 
the trotter 5 an excessively sloping rump, however, is 
the peculiar mark of a pacer. Very oblique shoulders, 
running far back, such as belong to the saddle horse 
and hunter, seldo?n occur in a fast trotter ; and I be- 
lieve that this remark would be almost equally true 
of running horses. Many trotters, as we have seen, 
are disfigured by tails set on low ; and this again 
is a common feature in running horses. In fact, 
shoulders inclined to be straight, and drooping tails, 
are thought by some writers to have a close connec- 
tion with excessive speed at any gait. A long body 
combined with a rather short back furnishes another 
indication of trotting capacity; and this was the 
shape of Flora Temple, the first horse to attain 
national reputation as a trotter. 

Flora Temple reduced the record for a mile from 
2.25-1 to 2.193. She was well born, her sire being 
Kentucky Hunter, but in her early youth she was 
considered almost worthless on account of her wild, 
and, as everybody supposed, ungovernable temper. 
Flora, as they called her at first, was a rough-coated 
little bay mare, not over fourteen hands two inches 
high, but possessed of a blood-like head, shapely neck, 
straight back, and fine legs with powerful muscles. 
Her birthplace was in the neighborhood of Utica, 



TROTTING HORSES. 65 

New York, where she was sold at the age of four 
years for the small sum of $13. A few months later, 
for $80, she passed into the hands of a drover, who 
took her with him on his way to the city of New 
York. One bright morning in June, 1850, this drover 
was passing through tlie beautiful village of Wash- 
ington Hollow. He was mounted on a line gray stal- 
lion, and kept his cattle in line, while the small bay 
horse was tied to the tail-board of an open wagon 
drawn by two stout mules and driven by a sleepy 
negro. This interesting procession attracted the no- 
tice of one Mr. Jonathan A. Vielee, a shrewd horse- 
man, who happened to be basking in the sun at his 
stable door on the morning in question, and who, re- 
marking the strong and gamy appearance of the 
future Queen of the Turf, hailed the drover, and 
presently " had the little mare by the nose, and was 
studying every mark upon her teeth. He then " — 
I quote from Mr. George Wilkes's history of Flora 
Temple — " took hold of her feet ; and the little mare 
lifted them successively in his hand, with a quiet, 
downward glance that seemed to say, ' You '11 find 
everything right there, Mr. Vielee, and as fair and 
as firm as if you wished me to trot for a man's life ! ' 
And so Mr. Vielee did : and as he dropped the last 
foot, he liked the promise of the little mare amaz 
ingly, and it struck him that if he could get her for 
any sum short of $250 she would be a mighty good 
bargain. 

" * She is about five years old ? ' said Mr. Vielee, 
inquiringly. 

"'You have seen for yourself,' replied the drover. 

"'I should judge she was all right?' again sug- 

5 



Q6 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

gested Mr. Vielee, partly walking round the mare, 
and again looking at lier up and down. 

" ' Sound as a dollar, and kind as a kitten,' re- 
sponded the drover, as firmly as if prepared to give 
a written guaranty. 

"■ ' Not always so kind, neither,' said Mr. Vielee, 
looking again steadily at the mare's f ace, ' or I don't 
understand that deviltry in her eye. But that 's nei- 
ther here nor there. You say the mare is for sale. 
Now let's know what you will take for her.' The 
result was that Mr. Vielee bought her for $175. 

" ' And a pretty good price at that,' said the drover 
to himself on pocketing the cash, ' for an animal that 
only cost me eighty, and who is so foolish and flighty 
that she will never be able to make a square trot in 
her life.'" 

A few weeks later Mr. Vielee took his new pur- 
chase to New York, and sold her to Mr. G. E. Perrin 
for $350. "In the hands of Mr. Perrin," relates the 
graphic writer from whom I have quoted already, 
"the little bay mare, who had proved so intractable, 
so flighty, so harum-scarum, and, to come down to the 
true term, so worthless to her original owners, was 
favored with more advantasres than ever she had en- 

o 

joyed before. She was not only introduced to the 
very best society of fast-goers on the Bloomingdale 
and Long Island roads, but she was taught, when 
'flinging herself out' with exuberant and superabun- 
dant spirit all over the road, as it were, to play her 
limbs in a true line, and give her extraordinary quali- 
ties a chance to show their actual worth. If ever she 
made a skip, a quick admonition and a steady check 
brought her to her senses ; and when in her frenzy 



TROTTING HORSES. 67 

of excitement at being challenged by some tip-top 
goer, she would, to use a sportman's phrase, 'travel 
over herself ' and go ' up ' into the air, she was stead- 
ied and settled down by a firm rein into solid trotting 
and good behavior in an instant. The crazy, flighty, 
half-racking, and half-trotting little bay mare became 
a true stepper, and very luckily passed out of her 
confused ' rip-i-ty clip-i-ty ' sort of going into a clean, 
even, long, low, locomotive-trotting stroke. Many a 
man who came up to a road tavern, after having been 
unexpectedly beaten by her, would say to her owner, 
as they took a drink at the bar, •' That 's a mighty 
nice little mare of yours, and if she was only big 
enough to stand hard work, you might expect a good 
deal from her.' " 

But Flora Temple was big enough, as her subse- 
quent career proved. Little horses, in fact, usually 
make the best weight-pullers and stand the most 
work. Hopeful, whose time to a skeleton wagon for 
a mile, 2.16^, made in 1878, remained the best on 
record till 1891,^ was a small gray horse, and, like 
almost all weight-pullers, a very short and quick 
stepper. " If little horses of this sort be particu- 
larly examined." says a high authority, " it will com- 
monly be found that, though they are low, they are 
long in all the moving parts ; and their quarters are 
generally as big and sometimes a deal bigger than 
those of many much larger horses." This remark 
would apply to Arab coursers, who, although their 
muscles are great, rarely stand above 14| hands ; and 

1 In the autumn of 1891, Allerton (a grandson of George Wilkes 
and of Mambrino Patchen) trotted a mile to wagon on a kite- 
shaped track in 2.15. 



6S ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

many thoroughbreds, conspicuous for their staying 
powers, have had the same general conformation. 

Flora Temple soon came into the hands of Hiram 
Woodruff, and under his tuition she became a famous 
race horse. She reduced the mile record, as we have 
seen, from 2.25^ to 2.1 9|, being equally good at two 
and three mile heats. There were several contemporary 
trotters, between whom and Flora Temple very little 
difference in speed existed when they first encoun- 
tered her ; but she outlasted the others. Some of 
these horses actually beat her once or twice ; but the 
longer they kept at it, the wider became the distance 
between them and the little bay mare, of whom it 
had been said that she might prove valuable if she 
were only big enough to stand hard work. Highland 
Maid, a well-bred, long-stepping bay mare ; Tacony, 
the first horse to make a record of 2.25^ ; Lancet ; 
Ethan Allen ; Kose of Washington ; Princess, a very 
handsome, high-bred mare, who came on from Cali- 
fornia expressly to beat Flora Temple ; John Mor- 
gan, a big, fine-looking golden-chestnut horse of good 
breeding, brought from the West for the same pur- 
pose ; George M. Patchen, a famous brown stallion 
of Morgan and Clay blood, — all these horses and 
many others engaged with Flora Temple, sometimes 
" turn and turn about," but all were badly beaten in 
the end. "Flora Temple," said Hiram Woodruff, 
"would train on and get better, when thoroughly 
hardened, towards the middle and close of the season. 
This is one of the most valuable qualities that a trot- 
ting horse can have. The greatest excellence in trot- 
ting is only to be reached through much labor and 
cultivation. Now, if strong work at a few sharj) 



TROTTING HORSES. 69 

races overdoes a horse and knocks him off, it is a 
great, almost an insurmountable obstacle to his at- 
taining the greatest excellence, even in speed for a 
mile." 

After Flora Temple came Dexter, a brown horse 
with a white face and four white feet, by E-ysdyck's 
Hambletonian. He also had remarkable courage 
and endurance, his dam being of the American Star 
family. 

" Some of the Stars," Hiram Woodruff said, " have 
given out in the legs ; but their pluck is so good that 
they stand up to the last, when little better than 
mere cripples. It is no wonder that they have great 
game and courage ; for Star's grandsire was the thor- 
oughbred four-miler Henry, who ran for the South 
on the Island here against the Northern horse Eclipse, 
in 1823. I went to see the race, being then six years 
old, and got a licking for it when I came home." The 
Stars were descended from Diomed. 

Dexter was first sold at the age of four, bringing 

four hundred dollars. He lowered the record to 2.17-J, 

and doubtless would have reduced it still further had 

he not become the property of Mr. Robert Bonner, 

who withdrew him from the turf. The excellence of 

this horse probably gave the finishing blow to an 

old superstition which is embodied in the following 

stanza . — 

" One white foot, inspect him , 
' Two white feet, reject him , 

Three white feet, sell him to your foes; 
Four white feet, feed him to the crows." 

The first great performance of Dexter was made in 
October, 1865, when he trotted under saddle against 



70 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

time, being matched to beat 2.19. He was trained by 
Woodruff, but ridden in the race by John Murphy, a 
very skilful horseman, and one of the few jockeys 
whose reputation for honesty was always absolutely 
unblemished. In this match. Dexter trotted the first 
half-mile in 1.06^ ; but after passing that point he 
broke. " When he broke," Hiram Woodruff relates, 
" the people cried, 'He can't do it this time ! ' But he 
settled well, and when he came on to the home stretch 
he had a fine burst in. I was up towards there, and 
sung out to Johnny, as he came by me, -Cut him 
loose ; you '11 do it yet ! ' Then Johnny clucked to 
him, and he went away like an arrow from the bow, 
true and straight, and with immense resolution and 
power of stroke. I knew he must do it if he did not 
break before he got to the score, and up I tossed my 
hat into the air. I never felt happier in all my life. 
The time given by the judges was 2 m. 18 J s. ; the 
outsiders made it somewhat less." 

Of the great trotters. Dexter seems to have been 
the best " all-round " horse, for none of his contempo- 
raries was able to beat him either in one, two, or three 
mile heats ; and he showed his superiority to a wagon 
or under saddle as well as in harness. Hiram Wood- 
ruff anticipated, but did not live to see his greatest 
triumphs. " It is a long time now," he wrote shortly 
before his own death, " since I took Mr. Foster to his 
box, and, pointing out his very remarkable shape, — 
the wicked head, the game-cock throttle, the immense 
depth over the heart, the flat, oblique shoulder, laid 
back clean under the saddle, the strong back, the 
mighty haunches, square and as big as those of a 
cart-horse, and the good, wiry legs, — predicted to 



TROTTING HORSES. 71 

liim that here stood the future Lord of the Trotting 
World/" 

Goldsmith Maid, who reduced the mark from 2.17^ 
to 2.14, had almost the apjjearance of a thoroughbred. 
She was small, being 15;^ hands high ; her legs were 
lean, flat, and wiry 5 her head and neck were finely 
cut, and indicative of good breeding; she was deep 
through the lungs, but so slight in the waist as to 
suggest a lack of constitution, although she was in 
reality extremely tough and lasting ; her feet were 
small and good. It was said of this famous mare 
that " in her highest trotting form, drawn to an edge, 
she is almost deer-like in appearance ; and when scor- 
ing for a start, and alive to the emergencies of the 
race, with her great flashing eye and dilated nostrils, 
she is a perfect picture of animation and living beauty. 
Her gait is long, bold, and sweeping, and she is, in the 
hands of a driver acquainted with her peculiarities, a 
perfect piece of machinery." 

Not a few horses like Goldsmith Maid have had this 
peculiar thin-waisted appearance, and yet were pos- 
sessed of much nervous strength and of great cour- 
age. A noted trotter described by Hiram Woodruff 
was of this character. "Rattler," he says, "was a 
bay gelding, fifteen hands high, a fast and stout horse, 
though liglit-waisted and delicate in appetite and con- 
stitution. He was a very long strider, and when going 
liis best it sometimes seemed as though he would part 
in the middle." He was afterward taken to England, 
where the climate suited him so well that he gained 
in appetite, and consequently in health and strength. 

Goldsmith Maid, when six years of age, was sold by 
her breeder for f 260, having never been put to work 



72 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

ou account of her nervous dispositiou. She had, how- 
ever, taken a very creditable part in certain amateur 
running races, which were held in a grassy lane about 
one quarter of a mile long. These dashes always took 
place by moonlight, being unauthorized by the elders 
of the family, but secretly enjoyed by the boys on the 
farm. Soon after she left her birthplace the Maid 
was sold again for $600 to Mr. Alden Goldsmith, a 
famous horseman, by whom she was named. He kept 
her for five years, and sold her for $20,000. Her 
dam was a well-bred animal, probably a daughter 
of Abdallah, who sired Eysdyck's Hambletonian. 
Goldsmith Maid's sire was Alexander's Abdallah, 
whose origin and fate are described in the preceding 
chapter. 

All the great trotters have had grooms, or " rub- 
bers," as they are technically called, between whom 
and the horses a strong affection existed. The name 
of Peter Conover is linked in this way with that of 
Dexter. Conover not only "rubbed" Dexter, but 
made most of his "boots," and gave him his exercise. 
Dexter was an intelligent horse, and whenever Budd 
Doble, who drove him in his races, mounted the sulky, 
he would become excited and pull, thinking that a 
contest impended ; but with his groom holding the 
reins he would go along quietly enough. The same 
thing is true of Nancy Hanks. Earns had his " Dave " 
and "' Barney." A colored man named Grant was trans- 
ferred to Mr. Bonner with Maud S., as being neces- 
sarily appurtenant to her. "Lucy Jimmy" was, as 
his name denotes, the attendant of Lucy, a celebrated 
mare contemporary with Goldsmith Maid, and very 
little inferior to her in speed. " Old Charlie " faith- 



TROTTING HORSES. 73 

fully served the Maid herself for many years, during 
live of which he was never absent from her stall ex- 
cept for two nights. Goldsmith Maid, like Rarus and 
like Johnston, the wonderful pacer, had a little dog as 
a companion. "They were a great family/' says Mr. 
Doble, " that old mare. Old Charlie, and the dog, — 
apparently interested in nothing else in the world but 
themselves, and getting along together as well as you 
could wish. When it was bed-time' Charlie would lie 
down on his cot in one corner of the stall, his pillow 
being a bag containing the mare's morning feed of 
oats; the Maid would ensconce herself in another 
corner ; and somewhere else in the stall the dog would 
stretch himself out. About five o'clock in the morn- 
ing the Maid would get a little restless and hungry. 
She knew well enough where the oats were, and would 
come over to where Charlie lay sleeping and stick her 
nose under his head, and in this manner wake him, 
and give notice that she wanted to be fed." 

Goldsmith Maid, after her retirement from the 
track, exhibited a very bad temper, and became noto- 
rious for kicking and biting. She was kept at a stock 
farm in Trenton, New Jersey, and one day, after an 
absence of some years, " Old Charlie " came to see her. 
He was warned not to go near the mare, but neverthe- 
less he entered her paddock. The Maid recognized 
him immediatel}^, neighed with pleasure, and, coming 
up, rubbed her nose against him with every mark of 
affection. At this farm. Goldsmith Maid met her old 
rival, Lucy, and the two venerable mares struck up a 
great intimacy; they became constant companions, 
and repelled with teeth and heels all other equine 
society. 



74 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

I shall speak hereafter of Goldsmith Maid's remark- 
able intelligence in " scoring." But perhaps the most 
interesting fact in her career is that she made her 
fastest time, 2.14, at the age of nineteen 5 and on her 
twenty-first birthday Budd Doble drove her a mile 
in 2.16. Goldsmith Maid continued on the track for 
nearly fifteen years, conquered all the fastest horses 
of her time, and trotted in all 332 heats under 2.30. 
She lasted so long partly because of her good breed- 
ing, and partly, it may be, because she was never 
trained or worked until she had become a mature 
horse. The fashion now is to make the trotter's 
career begin while he is a colt, but although the prac- 
tice has not been tested thoroughly, it must be fraught 
with danger. If it ever should become general, it 
is certain that many young horses would be over- 
worked and ruined every year, comparatively few 
drivers having the discretion and patience that are 
required for the safe " preparation " of a colt. There 
have been other horses who, like Goldsmith Maid, 
being well bred and beginning at a mature age, lasted 
a long time on the track. Dutchman, who trotted 
his first race at six years of age, was a sound and 
fast horse at eighteen. Topgallant, a grandson of the 
thoroughbred imported horse Messenger, and the first 
to make a record of 2.40, is a still more extraordinary 
example. When twenty-four years old he trotted a 
very hard race of four three-mile heats against all 
the best horses of his day, winning one heat ; and the 
week after he engaged in another race of three-mile 
heats, which he Vv^on. Old Topgallant was a great 
favorite of Hiram Woodruff, who as a boy took care 
of him, and as a young man trained, rode, and drove 



TROTTING HORSES. 75 

him. Woodruff describes Topgallant as " a dark bay 
horse, 15 hands 3 inches high, plain and rawboned, 
but with rather a fine head and neck, and an eye 
expressive of much courage. He was spavined in 
both hind legs, and his tail was slim at the root. 
His spirit was very high, and yet he was so reliable 
that he would hardly ever break, and his bottom was 
of the finest and toughest quality. He was more 
than fourteen years of age before he was known at 
all as a trotter, except that he could go a distance, 
the whole length of the New York Road, as well as 
any horse that had ever been extended on it." 

At the close of the Civil War there was living on a 
small farm at Greenport, Long Island, one Mr. R. B. 
Conklin, a retired stage carpenter, who by industry 
and thrift had saved a little money. Mr. Conklin had 
a passion for horses, especially for trotters, and he con- 
ceived the idea that a certain colt born on his farm, 
and the only one that he ever raised, was destined to 
become the champion trotter of the world. The 
colt's sire was Conklin's Abdallah, whose breeding is 
unknown. Its mother was a gray nag called Nancy 
Awful, half-thoroughbred, and very high-spirited. She 
also belonged to Mr. Conklin, and his belief in her 
and in her colt became a sort of religion. Many men, 
no doubt, under similar circumstances, have been 
equally enthusiastic, but the peculiarity in this case 
was that Mr. Conklin had always enjoyed the repu- 
tation of being "hard-headed." His neighbors there- 
fore came to the charitable conclusion that on this 
particular subject the old carpenter had gone mad. 
The foal was certainly very promising, long, muscular, 
and full of life and spirit. " From the day of its 



76 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

birth," says the historian, " it was treated differently 
from any other animal on the place. As soon as it 
liad been weaned, a suitable stall was built in a big 
barn for its accommodation, and from that day forth 
nothing w^as left undone to secure its comfort; and 
it was not long before Conklin and his colt were the 
talk of that end of Long Island. When the colt w^as 
three years old it was broken to harness, and during 
the following summer took part in a little race on 
the Island, winning the contest in about three min- 
utes. Then the old man was more certain than ever 
that he had the wonder of the world, and redoubled 
his efforts in the way of care, etc., had a special sta- 
ble built for the colt, with an office adjoining, where 
in winter, all seated around a big fire, he would 
entertain his neighbors, telling them what a great 
horse that colt w^as going to be. . . . For the next 
two years Mr. Conklin gave almost his entire time 
to the care and education of this colt. He bought 
himself a light wagon, got a set of double harness, 
secured an old runner, and as he was a very heavy 
man, and did not want to compel the colt to draw his 
weight, he hooked him by the side of the runner, 
and in this manner he received his first lessons in 
trotting." 1 

The extraordinary part of this story is that the colt, 
who was called Rarus, perfectly fulfilled the extrav- 
agant expectations of his breeder and owner, becoming 
the champion trotter of the world, and reducing the 
record in 1878 to 2.13i. Mr. Conklin brought him 
up well, for Splan, in whose hands Earns passed the 

1 This quotation is from John Splan's " Life with the Trotters," 
a very entertainini^ work. 



TROTTING HORSES. 77 

famous part of liis career, declared that lie never 
drove a better broken horse. 

Earns was a rangy bay, of high courage, with a plain 
though blood-like and intelligent head, a good neck, 
but rather poor feet. Excepting the tendency to in- 
flammation in his feet, he was a remarkably healthy 
horse, never losing his appetite despite the long jour- 
neys that he made and the hard races that he trotted. 
At one time Earns served as a foil for Goldsmith 
Maid, just as in earlier days George M. Patchen, John 
jVIorgan, and other horses did for Flora Temple, and 
as the same Patchen and Princess did later for Dex- 
ter. But in this case there was a difference. Rarus 
was much younger than Goldsmith Maid, and he was 
controlled by a driver who had no notion of using him 
np in hopeless contests. 

Both horses spent the winter of 1876-77 in Cali- 
fornia, where they gave some " exhibition " races, no 
pools being sold, and it being understood that Earns 
would not attempt to win. In the spring, a purse 
was offered in a " free-for-all " race, near San Fran- 
cisco, and both Goldsmith Maid and Earns were 
entered. The betting men in general supposed that 
the Maid would have an easy victory, but Earns de- 
feated her, Splan and his friends thus winning a 
great sum. This race marked the end of Goldsmith 
Maid's public career. Earns took her place as a 
"' star " performer, and two years later he was sold to 
Mr. Eobert Bonner for ."f^SejOOO. 

No sketch of Earns would be comj^lete without 
some mention of his remarkable friendship for a dog. 
When the horse was m California, a fireman gave to 
Splan a wiry-haired Scotch terrier pup, who was then 



78 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

two months old, and weighed when full grown only- 
fifteen pounds. Splan in turn gave the pup to Dave, 
the groom of liarus, with a caution not to let the horse 
hurt him, for on several occasions Rarus had bitten 
dogs that ventured into his stall. But to this terrier, 
who is described as possessing " almost human intel- 
ligence," the trotter took a great fancy, which the dog 
fully returned. They became fast and inseparable 
friends. "Not only," says Mr. Splau, "were they ex- 
tremely fond of each other, but they showed their 
affection plainly as did ever a man for a woman. We 
never took any pains to teach the dog anything about 
the horse. Everything he knew came to him by his 
own patience. From the time I took him to the sta- 
ble, a pup, until I sold Earns, they were never sepa- 
rated an hour. We once left the dog in the stall while 
we took the horse to the blacksmith shop, and when 
we came back we found he had made havoc with every- 
thing there was in there, trying to get out, while the 
horse during the entire journey was uneasy, restless, 
and in general acted as badly as the dog did, Dave 
remarked that he thought that we had better keep the 
horse and dog together after that. When Rarus went 
to the track for exercise, or to trot a race, the dog 
would follow Dave around and sit by the gate at his 
side, watching Rarus with as much interest as Dave 
did. When the horse returned to the stable after a 
heat, and was unchecked, the dog would walk up and 
climb up on his forward legs and kiss him, the horse 
always bending his head down to receive the caress. 
In the stable, after work was over, Jim and the horse 
would often frolic like two boys. If the horse lay 
down, Jim would climb on his back, and in that way 



TROTTING HORSES. 79 

soon learned to ride him ; and whenever I led Rarus 
out to show him to the public, Jim invariably knew 
what it meant, and enhanced the value of the per- 
formance by the manner in which he wouhl get on the 
horse's back. On these occasions the horse was shown 
to halter, and Jimmy, who learned to distinguish such 
events from those in which the sulky was used, would 
follow Dave and Rarus out on the quarter stretch; 
and then w^hen the halt was made in front of the grand 
stand, Dave would stoop down, and in a flash Jimmy 
would jump on his back, run up his shoulder, from 
there leap on the horse's back, and there he would 
stand, his head high in the air and his tail out stiff 
behind, barking furiously at the people. He seemed 
to know that he was as much a part of the show as 
the horse, and apparently took great delight in attract- 
ing attention to himself.'' 

When Rarus was sold to Mr. Bonner, Splan sent 
Jimmy with the horse, rightly judging that it would 
be cruel to separate them. But in Mr. Bonner's stable 
there was already a bull-terrier in charge, and one day 
when, for some real or fancied affront, the small dog 
attacked the larger one, the latter took Jimmy by the 
neck and was fast killing him ; but Rarus heard his 
outcries, and perceiving that his little friend was in 
danger and distress, pulled back on the halter till it 
broke, rushed out of his stall, and would have made 
short work with the bull-terrier had he not been re- 
strained by the grooms. 

The examples which I have cited prove that horses 
are far more capable of attaching themselves to other 
animals, man included, than is commonly supposed; 
for neither Dexter nor Goldsmith IMaid nor Rarus 



80 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

was particularly affectiouate in disposition. There is 
recorded one extraordinary case of friendship between 
an old horse and a young one. A trotting-bred colt, 
called Bay, had conceived a great fondness for a gray 
gelding who was pastured in the same lot with him, 
his affection being warmly returned. When the young 
horse arrived at the proper age he was sent to a trainer, 
but in his new quarters he became unmanageable ; he 
refused to eat, kicked and plunged in his stall, and 
kept the w^hole place in an uproar. Finally he was re- 
turned to the farm, and put back in the field with his 
gray friend, where he seemed perfectly contented. 
His owner then concluded that he would have to send 
the old horse also to the trainer, as a sort of compan- 
ion or nurse to the young one. This he did, and there- 
after the two animals were never separated. When 
Bay's education was so far advanced that he was 
thought worthy to go on the •' grand circuit," the gray 
gelding was taken with him from city to city. In the 
"palace horse car" which conveyed Bay and the 
other costly racers, a stall was invariably reserved for 
his humble friend; and whenever Bay engaged in a 
race the old horse accompanied the " rubbers " to the 
track, being always stationed in some place where the 
young trotter could conveniently see and speak to him 
between the heats. In another case, a great affection 
sprang up between a trotter and a goat ; and certain 
friendships between horses and other animals have be- 
come historical. Thus the Godolphin Arabian had his 
cat, Eclipse his sheep, and Chillaby or the "Mad 
Arabian" was excessively fond of a lamb that kept 
the flies from him. 

The 2.13| of Rarus was reduced the very next year 



TROTTING HORSES. 81 

by St. Julien to 2. 11 J. This is a big, slashing bay 
horse, with a large but good head, wide hips, and pow- 
erful hind legs. His sire was Volunteer, who was by 
the famous Rysdyck's Hambletonian, Volunteer's dam 
being a well-bred mare, from whom he derived a hand- 
some head and neck and a high spirit, these being 
characteristics seldom found in the Hambletonian 
strain. The dam of St. Julien was of the Clay fam- 
ily, which he closely resembled. St. Julien, like many 
other trotters, was not educated to the turf without 
the expenditure of exceeding pains on the part of his 
trainer and driver, Mr. Orrin Hickock. He is a very 
nervous horse, and it required months of practice be- 
fore he became accustomed to "scoring," so that he 
was fit to start in a race. 

A year later, Maud S. reduced the record to 2.10f, 
and again in 1885, to 2.08|-, which is still the best 
time for a regulation or oval-shaped track, though 
on the kite-shaped track Palo Alto equalled it, and 
Sunol surpassed it by half a second in the autumn of 
1891. Jay-Eye-See, with his record of 2.10, held the 
supremacy for a single day in 1884. He is an honest 
but ugly little black horse, having hind legs of tre- 
mendous power, which propel him with the accuracy 
and force of locomotive driving-wheels. Jay-Eye-See 
was by Dictator, a son of Rysdyck's Hambletonian, 
and brother to Dexter. Jay-Eye-See's dam was a 
daughter of Pilot Jr., and his grandam was by Lex- 
ington, a famous race horse inbred to Diomed. Maud 
S., as we have seen, was bred in much the same way. 
Her sire was Harold, by Rysdyck's Hambletonian ; 
her dam was Miss Russell, by Pilot Jr., and her 
grandam was by Boston, the four-mile racer, and sire 

6 



82 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

of Lexington. Maud S. shows her thoroughbred 
quality in every line. She is a medium-sized golden 
chestnut, with a good neck, a large, but bony, clean- 
cut, and noble head, ears that are well shaped, though 
a little too big, and a large eye, full of intelligence 
and courage. She has a straight back and strong 
quarters. Her present owner, Mr. Eobert Bonner, 
says of her: "Maud S. is the most intelligent and 
the most affectionate animal that I have ever owned. 
She has, however, ' a will of her own,' and would re- 
sent harsh treatment of any kind; but if you use 
her gently and kindly you can do anything with her. 
Soloman's dictum concerning children would not an- 
swer in her case. If you did not ' spare the rod,' you 
would be sure to ' spoil ' her. I would as soon think 
of striking a woman as to give Maud S. a sharp cut 
with a whip." There was a time in the career of 
Maud S. when she was wild, ungovernable, and, as a 
racing mare, nearly if not quite worthless. But a 
long course of patient training brought her back to 
her original state, and she is now perhaps the best 
driving horse as well as the fastest trotter in the 
world. 

I have mentioned the California horses Palo Alto 
and Sunol. The former, whose breeding has already 
been stated, is a noble animal, of immense courage, of 
bull-dog tenacity, and of sound bottom. He is a big 
brown horse, with fine shoulders, a well-shaped neck, 
and a handsome though not superfine head. Palo 
Alto has large, intelligent eyes, widely separated, 
and altogether he presents an appearance of sub- 
stance, of character, and of dignity. During the 
greater part of his career upon the turf he has suf- 



TROTTING HORSES. 83 

fered from a "game" leg, and yet lie has never, 
flinched or faltered. Considering his half-thorough- 
bred origin, he is a little phlegmatic ; it takes severe 
work to " warm him up," and he is apt to lose the 
first heat or two in a race. " Palo Alto." writes Mr. 
Marvin, " requires constant and vigorous driving, but 
there is a point beyond which it is dangerous to go." 
Sunol, his half-sister, has not yet been tested in a long 
race, but she has shown an extraordinary capacity 
of sustaining speed for a mile. Of all the famous 
trotters Sunol appears to have the least pleasant 
disposition; she is too intelligent to be positively 
vicious, but she is irritable, and perhaps a little 
spiteful. It is said that she has an especial dislike 
for her trainer and driver, Mr. Marvin, and that 
she shows this feeling unmistakably whenever he 
comes near her. Nevertheless, the two seem to un- 
derstand each other perfectly. " SunoPs redeeming 
feature," says a California writer, "is her affection 
for her groom." ^ 

Another half-brother of Sunol, the young Arion,^ is 
commonly regarded as the greatest trotter yet pro- 
duced. Arion is a small bay horse, not particularly 
beautiful or striking in appearance, except in one re- 
spect. His hind legs, and especially the hocks, are 
enormously large and muscular. To this peculiarity, 
no doubt, he owes his extreme speed. His disposi- 
tion is superlatively good, and he is said to be full of 

- Sunol is by Electioneer. Her dam was by General Benton. 
Sunol's grant! am was Waxy, a thoroughbred daughter of Lexing- 
ton, just mentioned. 

2 By Electioneer. His dam is Manette, by Nutwood. Arion's 
two-year-old record, as already stated, is 2.10|. 



84 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

life and energy. " When lie went back to the stall 
after his wonderful mile at Stockton," relates a writer 
in the San Francisco Examiner, " Arion was as full 
of play as any frisky young thing just out of the 
paddock. He had just trotted a mile that would kill 
many great horses, but he caught hold of the groom's 
coat with his teeth, shook it as a terrier does a rat, 
and nosed around the pockets for sugar, of which 
he is inordinately fond. Assuring himself that the 
groom was out of the way, he let fly with one hind 
foot, and struck the wall behind him with a bang like 
the report of a pistol ; then he looked around to see 
how big a hole he had made in the wood." Arion, it 
is said, enjoys admiration, and likes to be looked at, 
talked to, and photographed. " He loves everybody. 
There is not a streak of meanness in his composition. 
He would not harm a mangy dog that came into his 
stall to sleep." He has " large, soft eyes." 

In the course of this brief survey it must have 
occurred to the reader that there is one respect in 
which all the most distinguished trotters have resem- 
bled one another, and that is in their nervous energy, 
their high spirit and courage. That latent flame 
which the Washington Hollow horseman detected in 
the eye of Flora Temple came out afterward in the 
resolute bursts of speed with which she finished her 
fastest miles. Dexter was represented as being '^ chock 
full of fire and deviltry," and capable of jumping like 
a cat. Hiram Woodruff, as we have seen, spoke of his 
"wicked head." Goldsmith Maid had a strong will 
of her own, and the excitement which she betrayed on 
the eve of a race showed how fine was her organiza- 
tion. "She would stand quietly enough," says her 



TROTTING HORSES. 85 

driver, " while being hitched to the sulky," — although 
she had previously been kicking and plunging in her 
stall, — '* but she would shake and tremble until I 
have heard her feet make the same noise against the 
hard ground that a person's teeth will when the body 
is suddenly chilled ; that is, her feet actually chattered 
on the ground. The instant I would get into the sulky 
all tliis would pass away, and she would start in a 
walk for the track as sober as any old horse you ever 
saw." Earus was so nervous that he never could have 
been driven with safety on the road, and his courage 
was of the finest temper. St. Julien was exceedingly 
high strung, and in hands less patient and discreet 
than those of his trainer might never have been sub- 
dued to the purposes of racing. Jay-Eye-See, though 
I know less of his personal history, is notorious for 
the pluck that he showed on the last quarters of his 
hard miles ; and Maud S. is the most spirited, the 
most determined, and at the same time the gentlest 
of animals. 

Sunol is described by Governor Stanford, who bred 
her, as " a bundle of nerves." Palo Alto ^ is a horse 
of immense resolution, and Arion overflows with 
energy. The groom who has been his constant com- 
panion night and day for the past year or more says 
that he never saw Arion stand quietly for a full 
minute. " He is never at rest, and is always at play, 
except when the harness goes on, and he feels Mar- 
vin's hand on the lines : then he becomes at once an 
old campaigner, not a frisky colt." 

In all these horses we find strength of will, fine- 
ness of nerve, and a " do or die " quality that goes 

1 Palto Alto died of pneumonia after this chapter was in type. 



86 



ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



far to redeem the trotting track from those degrading 
associations with which, one must admit, it is almost 
always connected. Man may take a lesson from the 
horse, as well as from the dog, in courage, in resolu- 
tion, and in discipline. It is a noble spirit that ani- 
mates the exhausted trotter, who, obedient to the rein 
and voice of the jockey, expends his last reserve of 
force on the home stretch, and staggers under the 
Avire a winner by a head. 





IV. 



TROTTING EACES. 

SINCE 1824, when trotting may be said to have 
begun as a sport, the record has been reduced 
from 2 minutes 40 seconds to 2 minutes 8f seconds.^ 
Whence comes this great advance? It is due to 
improvements in trotting courses, in sulkies, in 
horseshoes, in boots and toe-weights, in harness (par- 

1 Since this chapter was printed, the record has been reduced by 
Nancy Hanks to 2.04. On this occasion, however, she drcAV the 
newly invented " bicycle " sulky with pneumatic rubber tires, the 
use of which is thouf^ht to make a saving of at least two seconds in 
a mile. Nancy Hanks is by Happy Medium, son of Rysdyck's 
Hambletonian : her dam was Nancy Lee, by Dictator, another son 
of Hambletonian and brother to Dexter. Nancy Lee's dam was by 
Edwin Forrest, of the half-bred Kentucky Hunter family to which 
Flora Temple belonged. Edwin Forrest also sired the dam of 
Mambrino King. 



88 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

ticularly in the device of the overdraw check), in 
training and driving, and finally in the speed and 
endurance of the trotters themselves. The gain in 
actual speed for a short distance has been much 
slighter than is commonly supposed. So long ago as 
1866, Hiram Woodruff drove Mr. Bonner's gray 
mare Peerless (who was bred like Dexter, being m 
part Messenger and m part Star) a quarter of a mile 
at the rate of a mile in two minutes, — and this not 
to a sulky, but to a skeleton wagon, a four-wheeled 
vehicle, which is much heavier. It is doubtful if 
this rate of going will ever greatly be surpassed, 
though it is, I think, commonly believed by horse- 
men that some time or other a mile will be trotted 
in two minutes. The gain will probably be not so 
much in speed for a short distance as in the ability 
to maintain speed for a full circuit of the track. 
Even Maud S. flagged a little on the last quarter of 
her fastest mile. 

For the past fifty years, and especially for the 
latter half of that time, much ingenuity and in- 
ventive skill have been employed to afford the trot- 
ter all the mechanical assistance that is possible. 
Tracks are made of an elliptical instead of a round 
shape, because the two comparatively long stretches 
or straight pieces thus obtained give the horse, 
particularly a big-striding one, the opportunity that 
he requires to get up his speed. Courses laid out in 
this way are found to be much faster than the old 
tracks, which were more nearly round. During the 
past two years many tracks have been constructed 
in what is called the kite shape, which resembles 
a long loop, or an oval, the sides of which have 



TROTTING RACES. 89 

been compressed until they nearly meet. On these 
tracks the horses start from one end of the loop, go 
up one side, come back on the other, and finish at 
the starting point. The kite track is considered to 
be about two seconds faster than the ordinary or 
regulation track, because it consists almost entirely 
of two long stretches; but it is of course very un- 
satisfactory to the spectator, who is able to see, 
in any real sense, only tlie beginning and the finish 
of the race. It seems unlikely that these tracks will 
long be tolerated.^ 

Then, too, the footing has greatly been improved. 
The best tracks now have an underlayer of turf or 
of bog grass, which makes them springy, and the 
surface is soft without being deep or heavy. The 
sulky drawn by Dutchman, the old-time trotter, of 
whom I have spoken in a former chapter, weighed 
eighty-two pounds. Hiram Woodruff, writing in 
1867, mentioned this fact, adding, " I now have two 
that weigh less than sixty pounds." The present 
weight is about forty pounds. ^ This reduction of 
forty pounds, or one half of the total weight, since 
Dutchman's day, makes a great difference in time 
for a mile, being probably equivalent on the average 
to about one and a half seconds. 

1 In Delaware, perhaps in other States also, a kite track whicli 
is down grade all the way has been constructed. This crowning 
absurdity was accomplished by making the return side of the loop 
end at a lower level than that from wliich the outgoing side of 
the loop starts. 

- I liave seen lately in a Boston warehouse a skeleton wagon 
that weighs but fifty pounds, and a top buggy that weighs only 
one hundred and twenty-eight pounds. Nancy Hanks's sulky 
weighs but thirty-eight pounds. Such vehicles might almost be 
described as works of art. 



90 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

Equal meclianical skill has been exerted in an- 
other direction. Many horses cannot be driven at 
anything like their highest speed without danger 
of cutting themselves, by striking one foot or leg 
against another, especially when they " break " ; and 
to protect them from injury in this manner a great 
variety of " boots" have been invented. Counting dif- 
ferent sizes of these articles separately, the number 
of them now on sale is over two hundred. Very few 
trotters are able to dispense with boots entirely, and 
many of them could not be used as race horses at all 
except for these appliances. The shoeing of trotting 
horses, again, is an art in itself,^ and so is the use of 
toe-weights, which are small pieces of brass screwed 
or otherwise attached to the hoofs of the fore feet. 
Heavy shoes and toe-weights are employed to make 
horses trot who otherwise would pace, to keep them 
level in their gait, and sometimes to cause a length- 
ening of their stride. The difficulty and importance 
of these matters may be gathered from the fact that 
a change of no more than two ounces in a trotter's 
fore shoes or toe-weights would, in many cases, make 
a difference of several seconds in his speed for a 
mile, and consequently of thousands of dollars in his 
value as a race horse. The necessity for toe-weights 
or heavy shoes lies in some defect of conformation 
or of gait, and when a trotter is obliged to carry a 
heavy load in this manner his feet and legs suffer. 

1 A fast horse now on the track is shod as follows : a sixteen- 
ounce shoe on the off fore foot, and a fourteen and a half ounce 
shoe on the near one ; a shoe of eight ounces on the off hind foot, 
and one of six ounces on the near hind foot. Jack, to take anotlier 
instance, wore only light tips on his fore feet when he made his 
record of 2.12^. 



TROTTING RACES. 91 

The famous Smuggler, a noble brown stallion with 
a white blaze in his face, a heavy and powerful an- 
imal, was originally a pacer, and in his races he wore 
shoes on his fore feet weighing two pounds each; 
in fact, he is said to have carried at one time three 
pounds on each fore foot. His great strength and 
courage enabled him to bear this burden, but event- 
ually it disabled him. Smuggler was once sold for 
$40,000, the highest price at that time ever paid 
in this country for a horse; and though he was 
capable of very high speed, he is regarded as on 
the whole a failure. If he made a single break in 
a race, he lost so much ground that he was nearly 
sure to be distanced. This peculiarity is explained 
by Mr. H. T. Helm, who says that Smuggler's stride 
with his fore legs is not long enough to correspond 
with the tremendous stroke of his hind legs, and 
consequently that he is apt to lose his balance. If 
he does so, one of two things must occur : he will 
either fall headlong and prostrate on the ground, — 
which of course does not happen, — or he will throw 
out both fore feet together ; in other words, gallop 
instead of trot. But Smuggler gallops very high in 
front, and therefore it is not easy for him to change 
quickly back again from the gallop to the trot : his 
speed has to be very much reduced before he can 
pass from one gait to the other, and in this way he 
loses so much ground that the other horses in the 
race are very likely to distance him. That a horse 
so severely handicapped by heavy shoes could trot 
such races as Smuggler did is a good illustration 
of equine strength and pluck. 

The last factor in the development of the trotting 



92 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

horse is the driver; and here we touch upon the 
great difference between running and trotting races. 
A running race may be described, with some exag- 
geration, as a brief but spirited fliglit of colts ridden 
by boys, whereas a trotting race is a long-drawn 
contest between seasoned horses and mature men, 
who are commonly the trainers as well as the drivers 
of their steeds. Not all running horses, to be sure, 
are colts, nor all their riders boys, but the limit of 
age in the horse and of weight in the man is quickly 
reached. In trotting races the jockeys are always 
men; the standard weight is 150 pounds, and if the 
driver falls below that he must carry lead enough on 
his sulky to make up the deficiency. In running 
races, steeple-chases excepted, the weight (including 
that of the rider) varies, roughly speaking, from 75 
to 130 pounds, and a Fred Archer who tips the scales 
at anything over J 20 must retire to private life. 
Then, again, running races, nowadays at least, al- 
most invariably consist of a single dash, whereas 
trotting races are in heats, the best three in five: 
and this affords an opportunity for stratagem and 
patience on the part of the driver; for courage, en- 
durance, and even for recuperation on the part of 
the horse. There is, therefore, in the trotting race, 
an element of subtlety which gives it a peculiar fas- 
cination. The typical driver who has been evolved 
from these conditions is a spare but sinewy man, 
with a quiet manner and a firm mouth, — as distinctly 
American a person as any that can be found. His 
chief qualities, so far as the horse is concerned, are 
sympathy and resolution. "Confidence between the 
trotting horse and his driver," said the great master 



TROTTING RACES. 93 

of the art, " is of the utmost importance : it is all in 
all. Some men inspire it readily, so that a horse 
will take hold and do all he knows the first time the 
man drives him. For another man the same horse 
will not trot a yard. The truth is that the horse is 
a very knowing, sagacious creature, much more so 
than he gets credit for. If a driver has no settled 
system of his own, or if he is rash or severe without 
cause, it is not likely that confidence will be inspired 
in the horse, even in a long time." 

It is a fact often remarked, that some drivers suc- 
ceed much better with certain equine families than 
with others, the reason doubtless being that they are 
better adapted to them in disposition. A trainer, 
for example, who did very well with a well known 
high-spirited and wilful breed failed conspicuously 
with another strain, of a milder and more gentle 
nature. 

There are, indeed, some boisterous drivers, but 
they are not the most successful; in fact, the 
quality of a horseman can almost be discovered by 
observing the manner in which he goes up to the 
animal's head or enters his stall. The loud, rough 
fellow may be a judge of soundness, and fairly well 
qualified for the box seat of a hack; but he is not 
the man for a close finish with a tired horse, when 
victory depends upon calling out the last reserve of 
strength; nor will he make the successful trainer of 
a high-strung colt. The trotter, moreover, cannot 
be convinced by mere noise and violence : he is much 
too clever an animal for that, and will hardly be 
cheated into thinking that the jockey possesses any 
quality which he really lacks. But when a driver 



94 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

has tlie required combination of sympathy and force, 
the trotter is quick to recognize his master and ready 
to obey him. 

"One half of a horse's speed," wrote Mr. George 
Wilkes, "is in the mind of his rider or driver. 
When it is known to the world that a horse has 
made a mile a second or half-second faster than, it 
was ever made before, some rider of some other 
horse, nerving himself with the knowledge of the 
fact, and infusing that knowledge into his horse by 
dint of his own enthusiasm, sends him a second or 
two faster still; and the result of the mental emu- 
lation is a permanent improvement which never is 
retraced. Hiram Woodruff was the first to take this 
mental grip of the powers of the trotting horse; and 
the result in his case was, that, by dint of his own 
mind, he carried him triumphantly over the gap 
which lies between 2.40 and 2.18." 

"Dan Mace," said Woodruff himself, speaking of 
another famous reinsman, now dead, "is very reso- 
lute, and the horses that he handles know it." 

To drive a trotter with art is, first, to get from 
him the highest speed of which he is capable; 
secondly, to keep him from making a break; and, 
thirdly, to bring him back to the trot with as little 
loss as possible after a break has actually occurred. 
To do this well requires a light and "sensational" 
hand, a sympathetic intelligence, and a vast deal of 
practice. The break is prevented, sometimes by 
restraining the animal with voice and rein, when it 
is simply a case of too much eagerness, but more 
often by moving the bit in his m^outh. If the break 
happens, the horse "leaving his feet," as the phrase 



TROTTING RACES. 95 

is, and going to a gallop or a run, lie must be 
" caught" by pulling his head to one side, so that he 
will have to come back to a trot in order to keep his 
balance; and in extreme cases it will be necessary to 
pull him first this way, and then that. The break 
does not come without premonitory signals; there 
is a sort of general unsteadiness of the horse's gait, 
when the change is in contemplation, and at the last 
moment he moves his ears backward. " The sign of 
a coming break," says Hiram Woodruff, that excel- 
lent writer from w^hom I have quoted so much al- 
ready, "will be discovered by watching the head and 
ears of the horse. The attention of the driver ought 
always to be fixed upon the head of his horse. Many 
a heat is lost by neglect of this matter. A driver is 
seen coming up the home stretch a length or a length 
and a half ahead. Both the horses are tired, but 
the leading one could win. The driver, however, 
when he gets where the carriages are, turns his head 
to look at the ladies, or to see whether they are 
looking at him. Just then the horse gives a twitch 
wath his ears; the driver does n't see it; up flies the 
trotter, and the ugly man behind holds his horse 
square, and wins by a neck." 

Of all muscular pleasures, there is none, perhaps, 
more fine and delicate than this of the skilful reins- 
man. Whirled along at the rate of a mile in two 
minutes and a half, he keeps his trotter steady by a 
slight turn of the wrist, thus moving the bit in the 
animal's responsive mouth, and so distracting his 
attention and jogging his memory. If there is any 
parallel to this exercise, it will probably be found 
in those clever manipulations of rod and line by 



96 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



means of which an angler transfers the shy but gamy 
trout from water to land. Nor is it necessary to 
mount a sulky in order to experience these delights. 
Mr. Vanderbilt drove Maud S. and Aldine, harnessed 
to his road wagon, a mile in 2.15J; at Cleveland, 
some years ago, a four-in-hand accomplished the 
same distance in 2.40; and a moderately fast horse, 
a moderately light wagon, and a smooth road supply 
all the necessary conditions for artistic driving. 

There is another function of the bit scarcely less 
important, and that is to encourage and restore a 
tired horse. When, at the end of a stoutly contested 
heat, two trotters are struggling for supremacy, they 
can be urged by the voice, reinforced either by the 
whip or by the bit. A coarsely bred, sluggish animal 
may, at this critical moment, require the lash, but its 
application to a beast of any spirit is almost sure to 
disgust and dishearten him. In some subtle way, 
however, when the driver moves the bit to and fro 
in the horse's mouth, the effect is to enliven and stim- 
ulate him, as if something of the jockey's spirit were 
thus conveyed to his mind. If this motion be per- 
formed with an exaggerated movement of the arm, it 
is called "reefing," and it sometimes appears, when 
it is "neck or nothing," at the end of a heat, as if 
the driver were actually "sawing" the horse's mouth, 
whereas in reality, he is only giving the bit a loose 
but vigorous motion therein. 

At this point, it might not be amiss to state the 
conditions of a trotting race, for it is highly probable 
that to some of my readers the following explanation 
will not be superfluous. 

The race is over a mile track, almost elliptical in 



TROTTING RACES. 97 

shape, and the judges are perched in a two-stor^^ 
balcony close to the track, and near one extrem- 
ity of the ellipse, so that at the end of a heat the 
horses have a long, straight stretch before reach- 
ing the goal. Across the track from the judges' 
stand, and high enough to clear the trotters' heads, 
is stretched a wire, by the aid of which, in a very 
close finish, the judges can determine which horse 
has won. The race is usually "best three in five"; 
that is, in order to win, a horse must come in first 
three times, not necessarily in succession. Thus it 
will be seen, if there are many contestants in the 
race, it may be prolonged to seven, eight, and even 
ten heats, before any one trotter has secured three. 
But if a horse has taken part in five ^ heats without 
winning a single one, he is ruled out, or "sent to the 
barn," as the expression is, and cannot start again. 
So, also, he may be ruled out if at the close of a heat 
he is very far behind the winning horse. At a point 
in the home stretch one hundred feet from the judges' 
stand, (one hundred and fifty, if eight or more horses 
are engaged in the race,) a man is stationed with a 
flag in his hand, which he drops when the winner 
reaches the wire; and if any lagging horse has not 
passed him when his flag falls, that horse is "dis- 
tanced," and cannot start again. It is possible for a 
driver to "lay up" a heat, as it is called; that is, if 
his horse be tired, or for any other cause, he may 
content liimself for that heat with just "saving his 
distance," making no effort to win. The start is a 
flying one. When the judges ring their bell, the 
drivers turn about at or near the distance point, and 

1 A recent rule makes this limit three heats instead of five. 

7 



98 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

coine down past the judges' stand almost or quite at 
full speed. If, when they pass under the wire, they 
are upon fairly even terms, the starter (one of the 
judges) cries out, "Go!" and on they rush. If, 
however, the start would not be a fair one, the bell 
is rung as a signal that the drivers must come back 
and try again. Sometimes the scoring, as these 
attempts are called, is prolonged for a long while; 
but the judges are authorized to fine any driver who 
comes down ahead of or behind the "pole" horse; 
that is, the horse who has the inside position, or 
that nearest the poles which mark the quarter, the 
half, and the three-quarter mile points. All the 
positions are assigned by lot. The attempt is occa- 
sionally made by a combination of drivers to tire out 
or excite some particular horse by unnecessary scor- 
ing, and in former years this nefarious plan was 
often practised successfully, but of late the rules are 
enforced with more strictness. Even with the best 
intentions on the part of all the drivers concerned, 
it is sometimes difficult to get a fair start, especially 
if the horses are young or badly behaved, and the 
scoring is frequently spoken of as a great drawback 
to the pleasures of a trotting race. These false 
starts, however, afford a most interesting exhibition 
of horses and men ; the spectator has such an oppor- 
tunity as he could not otherwise enjoy to study the 
gaits of the various trotters, to note how well or ill 
they "catch," and to observe the skill, temper, and 
courage of the jockeys. There is a great difference 
in the behavior of the different horses. Some pull 
and tug on the bit, despite the signal to return, car- 
rying their drivers down to the first turn in the 



TROTTING RACES. 99 

track before they can be stopped; whereas others, 
old campaigners as a rule, will slacken speed at 
once when they hear the bell, stop, and turn around 
of their own accord. 

Goldsmith Maid, a mare whose natural cleverness 
enabled her to profit by a long and varied experience, 
showed wonderful intelligence in scoring. When 
turned about to come down for the start, she would 
measure with her eye the distance between herself 
and the other horses; and if it seemed to her that 
they were likely to get first to the judges' stand, she 
would refuse to put forth her best speed, despite the 
efforts of her driver. The result in such cases was, 
of course, as she foresaw, that the judges, perceiving 
that the start would be an unfair one, rang the recall 
bell. "On the contrary," says Mr. Doble, "if she 
had a good chance to beat the other horses in scoring, 
she would go along gradually with them until pretty 
close to the wire, and then of her own accord come 
with a terrible rush of speed, so that when the word 
was given she would almost invariably be going at 
the best rate of any horse in the party. ... If she 
had the pole, she would make it a point to see that 
no horse beat her around the first turn, seeming to be 
perfectly well aware that the animal that trotted on 
the outside had a good deal the worst of it.^^ 

Close to the fence, but inside of it on the track, 
opposite the judges' stand or thereabout, there is 
always a motley group of "rubbers" or grooms, and 
helpers, with pails of water and sponges in their 
hands, and blankets, thick or thin according to the 
weather, thrown over their shoulders, or deposited 
conveniently on the fence. Here, very often, tlie 



100 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

driver pulls up for a moment, on liis way back to 
the starting point after the bell has rung for a re- 
call, while the groom hastily sponges out the horse's 
mouth and nostrils, adjusts the check-rein, takes up 
a hole in the breeching, or makes some other slight 
change in the harness. 

These are tense moments in an important race, 
especially if the contestants are known to be evenly 
matched, and if each driver is anxious that the oth- 
ers shall take no advantage of him. At such times 
a reputation for courage is of some service; it is 
always a temptation for one jockey to " cut out " 
another, or unfairly drive in to the " pole" ahead of 
him, just as one boat in a rowing race may take 
another boat's water. Under these circumstances, it 
is the right of the driver, whose territory is invaded 
to keep on, even though a collision may result ; and 
a resolute man will do so, undeterred by the fact 
that spokes are flying from the wheel of his own or 
of his adversary's sulky, as the two gossamer vehicles 
come together. "The quarter stretch looked more 
like a toothpick factory than a race-course," was face- 
tiously remarked of one occasion, wdien the driving 
had been reckless. 

With this explanation, I shall venture to give a 
short account of a notable race which occurred at 
Cleveland, in July, 1876, between the famous horses 
Smuggler and Goldsmith Maid. The latter was at 
this time nineteen years old, but she was thought to 
be invincible, and in this very year she repeated her 
best record, 2.14, first made by her in 1874. The 
Maid was, as we have seen, the fastest trotter from 
the time of Dexter, who achieved 2. 17 J in 1867, 



TROTTING RACES. 101 

to that of Rarus, who in 1878 covered a mile in 
2. 13 J. A slight sketch of Goldsmith Maid was 
given in a former chapter, and I have stated already 
in the present chapter the chief characteristics of 
Smuggler. 

There were three other fast horses in the race, 
Lucille Golddust, Bodine, and Judge Fullerton; but 
none of them, excepting perhaps Lucille Golddust, 
played a part of any importance. Goldsmith Maid 
was driven by Budd Doble, a young man whom 
Hiram Woodruff picked out to succeed himself in the 
charge of Dexter, and who has since amply justified 
the selection by intelligent training and skilful driv- 
ing of many celebrated horses. He is, moreover, one 
of the few jockeys whose reputations are without 
flaw. Charles Marvin, who also ranks high in the 
craft, sat in the sulky of Smuggler. But the judges 
are ringing their bell, the horses have been " warmed 
up," the rubbers are gathered at the wire, a hush has 
fallen upon the vast throng of spectators, anticipa- 
tion is on tiptoe, and it is time for the 

First Heat. At the third trial, the horses re- 
ceived a fair start, and Goldsmith Maid, pursuing 
her usual tactics, made a rush for the lead, and 
secured it. The first half-mile was trotted very fast, 
and for the first quarter Bodine was second and 
Smuggler third. Smuggler, .however, went by Bo- 
dine in the second quarter, and soon after the half- 
mile pole was passed he came very close to the Maid, 
but at this point he faltered a little. The cause was 
not known at first to the spectators, but after the 
heat a mounted patrol judge galloped in with a shoe 
which Smuggler had cast from his near fore foot. 



102 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

Despite this accident, — and its importance may be 
estimated from the fact that his fore shoes weighed 
two pounds each, — Smuggler came down the home, 
stretch with tremendous speed, pushing the Maid 
hard; and when she swept under the wire in "^.lij^, 
his nose was on a level with her tail. This was a 
great heat, and Smuggler would probably have won 
it had he not cast a shoe. 

Seco7id Heat. There was some trouble in scoring, 
for Smuggler broke badly, but on the fourth attempt 
they were sent off. Goldsmith Maid being a little 
ahead of the others. In going around the first turn 
Smuggler made one of his characteristic breaks, and 
had to be pulled almost to a standstill before he 
regained a trot. His driver therefore contented him- 
self with just saving his distance. But the Maid was 
given no rest, for Lucille Golddust was close upon 
her heels, forcing the Queen of the Turf to trot the 
mile in 2.171. These two fast heats distressed 
Goldsmith Maid, but those who had backed her 
were still confident, relying upon the great speed 
and steadiness of the old mare to pull her through. 

Third Heat. The Maid, having won the preceding 
heat, had the inside position, and kept it, although 
she broke at the first turn; but her breaks were not 
like those of Smuggler. To the half-mile pole she 
led, with Fullerton second, Lucille Golddust third, 
and Smuggler fourth. But after this point had been 
reached, Marvin called upon Smuggler for an effort. 
The horse answered gamely; he passed Lucille Gold- 
dust, then Fullerton, and when Goldsmith Maid 
turned into the home stretch Smuggler was close 
behind her. The race was extremely close from 



TROTTING RACES. 103 

this point; but Smuggler giiined on the Maid inch 
by inch, and finally dashed under the wire, three 
quarters of a length in advance, amid tumultous ap- 
plause. Time, 2.16^. "The scene which followed," 
says a contemporary and graphic report in the 
Turf, Field, and Farm, "is indescribable An elec- 
trical wave swept over the vast assembly, and men 
swung their hats and shouted themselves hoarse, 
while the ladies snapped fans and parasols and 
burst their kid gloves in an endeavor to get rid of 
the storm of emotion. The police vainly tried to 
keep the quarter stretch clear. The multitude poured 
through the gates, and Smuggler returned to the 
stand through a narrow lane of humanity, which 
closed as he advanced. Doble was ashy pale, and 
the grand mare who had scored so many victories 
stood with trembling flanks and head down. Her 
attitude seemed to say, 'I have done my best, but 
am forced to resign the crown.'" 

"During the intermission," according to the same 
account, "the stallion was the object of the greatest 
scrutiny. So great was the press that it was difficult 
to obtain breathing-room for him. He appeared fresh, 
and ate eagerly of the small bunch of hay which was 
presented to him by his trainer after he had cooled 
off. It was manifest that the fast work had not de- 
stroyed his appetite. The betting now changed, for 
it was seen that the Maid was tired." 

The race, however, was not over yet. Smuggler 
had two heats to win before victory would be his, 
whereas Goldsmith Maid needed only one more. She 
was leg-weary, to be sure, but then she could be 
counted on to make a humanly sagacious use of her 



104 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

opportunities, and a single bad break would cause 
Smuggler's defeat. Excitement subdued the specta- 
tors to perfect stillness, and not a sound was heard 
except the rhythmical" tramp of the five horses, as 
they thundered down the stretch to the wire for 
the 

Fourth Heat. At the second attempt the judges 
gave the word " Go" as Smuggler was trotting stead- 
ily, although somewhat behind the others. The 
Maid, as usual, rushed off with the lead, and Lucille 
Golddust took the second place, being pulled out a 
little, so as to bring her near the centre of the track. 
This left Marvin in a very bad position, technically 
known as a "pocket." He could not slip in be- 
tween -the other two horses, for Doble kept the Maid 
back just far enough to prevent such a move; and 
if he should check his own horse sufficiently to get 
past Lucille Golddust, much distance would be lost. 
What he did was to remain in this helpless situation 
until the home stretch was reached, thinking that 
the driver of Golddust would finally get out of his 
way; but this did not happen, and when Smuggler 
was only three hundred yards from the wire, when 
Goldsmith Maid had a long lead, when "a smile of 
triumph lighted Doble's face, and the crowd settled 
sullenly down to the belief that the race was over," 
then at last the driver of Smuggler pulled him back 
and turned to the right, so as to get out of the 
pocket, and made desperate play for the heat. Con- 
trary to what every one expected, the horse did not 
break, despite this interference with his stride, but, 
keeping level and steady, came down the course, 
when he saw the way clear before him, with a 



TROTTING RACES. 105 

burst of speed which will always be famous in the 
chronicles of the American turf. His ears were laid 
flat on his head, his neck was stretched out low and 
long, so as to bring his head scarcely above the level 
of his withers, and fire flashed in his eye. 

"He trotted," writes Mr. Helm, who was among 
the spectators, "with a grim desperation, that can- 
not readily be forgotten by the thousands who were 
present. His fleet-footed and never faltering oppo- 
nent, the victor in a hundred trials, the Queen of 
2.14, was already thirty-fiv.e feet ahead of him. 
With a gathering of resources never perhaps held 
by any other, and a rate of speed never equalled on 
the trotting turf, he made for the front. There can 
be no doubt, I think, that he moved for six or eight 
hundred feet at the rate of a two-minute gait. He 
trotted then as if he knew he could and would win 
the heat; and in his very eye there was the look of 
win it, or perish in the attempt. Woe to the animal 
or vehicle that should come between him and the 
end of that race ! His speed was terrific, his mo- 
mentum was fearful, and his stroke as steady and 
true as any ever beheld. His very appearance was 
a sort of magnetism that electrified the thousands 
that were present." 

"It was more like flying than trotting," says the 
report from which I first quoted. "Doble hurries 
his mare into a break, but he cannot stop the dark 
shadow which flits by him. His smile of triumph 
is turned into an expression of despair. Smuggler 
goes over the score a winner of the heat by a neck, 
and the roar which comes from the grand stand and 
the quarter stretch is deafening. The time was 



106 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

2.19|. Smuggler again cooled oft' well, nibbling 
eagerly at his bunch of hay. The Maid ^vas more 
tired than ever, while Lucille Golddust showed no 
signs of distress." 

Even yet, however, the race was in doubt. 
Fifth Heat. It was evident that the other horses, 
or rather their drivers, had formed a combination 
against Smuggler. They worried him so much in 
scoring that twice again he pulled off the shoe from 
his near fore foot, and nearly an hour elapsed before 
a start was obtained. "The shell of the foot," re- 
lates the excellent writer in the Turf, Field, and 
Farm, "was pretty badly splintered by the triple 
accident, but the stallion was not rendered lame. 
Misfortunes, however, seemed to be gathering 
thickly about him, and the partisans of the Maid 
wore the old jaunty air of confidence." The other 
horses had an unbroken rest while Smuggler was 
shoeing, so that they all appeared fresh when the 
word was finally given. "Fullerton," says the 
Turf, Field, and Farm, "went to the front like a 
flash of light, trotting without a skip to the quarter 
pole in thirty -three seconds," but Smuggler passed 
him near the half-mile pole, kept the lead from that 
point, and won the race, although Goldsmith Maid 
came along with great speed on' the home stretch, 
forcing Smuggler to trot the heat in 2. 17 J, and 
finishing a good second. 

Thus ended what was perhaps, all things consid- 
ered, the best race ever trotted. Here were five 
heats in 2.151, o.lTJ, 2.161, 2.19f, 2.171, each one 
being gallantly contested, and the result remaining 
in the utmost doubt till the very close of the fifth 



TROTTING RACES. 107 

heat. "The evening shadows had now thickened, 
and, as the great crowd had shouted itself weak and 
hoarse, it passed slowly through the gates, and drove 
in a subdued manner home." 

There is one other race of which I cannot forbear 
giving a brief account, because the winner displayed 
the same admirable qualities as Smuggler, and tri- 
umphed where his defeat was supposed to be inev- 
itable. There were eight contestants, but tlie real 
competitors were three, namely, Nobl)y, Felix, and 
Florence. 

Nobby was a very peculiar horse: a dark bay 
gelding, with a long neck and bod}', a fine head, and 
altogether a thoroughbred and even greyhound appear- 
ance. His gait was long, low, and smooth. He was 
however a wild breaker, and extremely nervous. " The 
twitter of a canary bird on a limb," said John Splan, 
his driver, " would have more effect on Xobby than 
a full brass band on an ordinary horse." Both his 
mouth and feet were in bad condition, but Splan, 
who took the horse for the first time on the day of 
the race, poulticed his feet, and relieved his mouth 
by driving him with an easy bit and nose-band at- 
tachment. He also stuffed the horse's ears with 
cotton, so that he should not be scared or worried to 
a break by the shouting and whipping of the other 
drivers. "Nobby," said the contemporary report in 
the Spirit of the Times, " impresses you with the 
idea that he is constantly trying to lose the race by 
making a mistake. Splan drove him as carefully as 
if he were handling eggs." Felix was a bay gelding, 
and a horse of speed, — much speedier, in fact, than 
Nobby; but, as a reporter of the race remarked, "he 



108 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

has a soft spot in liiin somewhere when pinched." 
riorence was a beautiful mare, also fast, and a good 
breaker. All three, it should be mentioned, were 
driven by masters of the art. 

The Jirst heat was won by Florence after a sharp 
contest with Felix, ISTobby making no effort. In the 
second heat Xobby outstripped the others on the home 
stretch, but made a wild break, passing under the 
wire on a run, and Florence was awarded first place. 
In the third heat Nobby again broke badly, and Felix 
won after another hard contest with Florence. In 
the fourth heat Xobby showed his quality. At the 
three-quarter pole Felix led him by four lengths, but 
from this point Nobby began to gain inch by inch, 
Splan driving him with great patience and skill. 
His long neck showed nearer and nearer to the sulky 
of Felix, as the two horses approached the judge's 
stand, until at last they were side by side. Then 
Felix seemed to fall back, and Nobby won amid wild 
hurrahs. "I have seen his sire do the same thing in 
California," said a noted horseman who was among 
the spectators. In the fifth heat, however, Nobby 
made another disastrous break, and Felix won easily. 
Five heats had now been trotted, and the coming 
heat would decide the race if it fell either to Felix 
or to Florence. Nobby, so far, had only one to 
his credit. This brings us to the 

Sixth Heat. It had begun to rain a little; the 
track was sticky, and all the horses were tired. 
*' Their courage," says the report, "was cheered by 
sherry." It is more likely, however, that Nobby was 
treated to champagne and seltzer water, that being 
the agreeable dose usually administered by Splan 



TROTTING RACES. 109 

under similar circumstances. Only the winners of 
heats, Felix, Florence, and Nobby were allowed to 
start; the others, who had not secured a single one 
out of the five heats that had been trotted, beine 
"sent to the barn," in accordance with a rule already 
stated. The pools sold fast and furious on Felix 
against the field, twenty-five dollars to six, for what 
slight chance Nobby ever had was thought to be 
gone. 

Now came one of the most stubbornly contested 
heats ever seen on a trotting course. At the start 
Felix showed much more speed than the others, and 
was a length ahead at the quarter pole, with Florence 
second, and Nobby trotting steadily in the rear. At 
the half-mile pole Felix had gained three lengths 
more, and looked, as the sporting phrase is, a sure 
winner. Soon after this point was passed Florence 
gave place to Nobby, and "now," said the Spirit of 
the Times, " Splan began to show his tactics, ^wait 
and win.' His gain to the three-quarter pole was 
almost imperceptible, and Felix still kept a long 
lead; but from this point Splan began to use every 
particle of speed that was in his horse. When they 
turned into the home stretch Felix was swung out to 
the middle of the track, where the footing was better 
but Nobby was driven close to the pole. 'T can't 
spare a foot of distance, was my thought,' Splan 
afterward remarked." 

"Nobby gamely entered into the spirit of the task: 
a stern chase, it is trup, but gradually he lessened the 
gap. At the drawga,tes, where the path was hard, 
he wavered, as if about to break, but Splan steadied 
him with a slight pull, and on recovering his stride 



110 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

he now measured the distance to be overcome. 
Slowly but surely came he nearer to Felix; within 
a few lengths of the wire they were almost even. 
Just at the last moment Splan roused ISTobby for a 
final effort, and landed him first under the wire by 
a neck. Time, 2.25." 

Seventh Heat. Twilight was coming on as the 
tired horses scored for the word. At the third trial 
they received a fair start. Felix broke almost im- 
mediately, and lost three lengths, but Florence gave 
Xobby no rest so long as her wind and courage 
lasted. She hung close to the wheel of his sulky 
until they had got midway of the second quarter, 
when Xobby began to draw away from her. At this 
point Felix came along, and the driver of Florence, 
seeing that she had "shot her bolt," kindly pulled 
her out from the pole to the centre of the track, thus 
allowing Felix to slip into her place. Florence then 
dropped behind, but Felix continued to gain, and 
at the half-mile pole he was trotting neck and neck 
with Nobby. From this point, as before, Felix out- 
trotted Nobby, and when they turned into the home 
stretch for the last time he had a good lead of three 
full lengths. Again the driver of Felix brought 
him out to the centre of the track, and again Splan 
hugged the pole. The brush down the home stretch 
was an exciting one. Felix trotted fast, but behind 
him still pegged away the unconquerable Nobby, and 
the distance between them was reduced inch by inch, 
until at last Splan brought his horse up on even terms 
with the other. They were now but a few yards 
from the goal. Both horses were exhausted, and 
Nobby could not be aroused by the voice, for his ears 



TROTTING RACES. Ill 

were stuffed with cotton. Splan took "the last, 
dying chance," as he called it. Running the risk of 
a break, which would have been fatal, he leaned 
forward and touched Nobby lightly on the shoulder 
with his whip. The move was successful. Nobby 
kept steadily to a trot, but, gamely responding to 
the appeal, made one final effort, and fairly staggered 
under the wire, a winner by a head.-^ Time, 2.28j. 

Thus ended a memorable contest. It was won by 
the horse who proved himself the slowest trotter 
and the worst breaker of the three competitors, — 
won through his own courage and endurance, and 
through the skill and patience of his driver. " But 
who cares to see a race which falls to the slowest 
horse? The race should be to the swift," is a com- 
ment that might perhaps be made. Such a criticism 
would be founded upon a false notion of sport. All 
sports practised for the amusement of a spectator are 
noble according as victory in them depends upon the 
exercise of moral and mental qualities. The atten- 
tive reader of Boxiana will conclude that, taking the 
history of the ring as a whole, the fight was usually 
won by the man who had determined that he would 
not be beaten; and from this circumstance alone a 
very fair argument might be made — how nearly 
adequate need not here be considered — in support 
of pugilism. 

In trotting races, for the reasons already stated, and 
as is apparent from the illustrations that have been 
given, there is a peculiar opportunity for the exercise 

' Since the writing of this chapter, Nobby has been sohl at 
auction. He brought $2,000, and his purchaser, as the senti- 
mental reader will be glad to learn, was John Splan. 



112 



ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



of admirable qualities on the part of both horse and 
man. It is true, that, so far as the drivers are con- 
cerned, tlieir skill is often prostituted to the exigen- 
cies of the pool-box, but no accusation of this sort 
was ever brought against a trotter. The breath of 
suspicion may at times have rested upon Splan, but 
the name of Nobby is untarnished. In the two con- 
tests just described, all parties to the light honestly 
exerted the qualifications that nature and experience 
had given them; and although victory perched iirst 
here and then there, the prize finally fell, as should 
be the case, to superior courage, endurance, patience, 
and skill. 





V. 



EOAD HOKSES. 



AMONG the irregular acquaintances of my boy- 
hood, I remember a certain Eel Hulbert, who 
was wont to express his notion of felicity in the fol- 
lowing concise and oft-repeated phrase : " A smooth 
road and a sharp trot ! " There may be nobler ideals ; 
pursuits might perhaps be thought of which combine 
pleasure with intellectual improvement to a greater 
degree ; and certainly it must be admitted that a 
young or even a middle-aged man should always be 
provided with an excuse for driving instead of riding, 
such as that he is lame, or has already taken an equiva- 
lent amount of exercise in some other form, or desires 
to be accompanied by his wife. But, these difficulties 
surmounted, (or shall we say disregarded ?) the com- 
bination of " a smooth road and a sharp trot " will 

8 



114 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

aupply no small amusement. Only the horse lover, 
indeed, can enjoy it to the full, — subtly communi- 
cating through rein and bit with his steed, appre- 
ciating the significant play of his ears, and rightly 
interpreting that lively, measured ring of his feet upon 
the road which indicates a sound and active stepper. 
But there are some incidental delights, such as the 
quick conveyance through fresh air and a passing 
glimpse of the scenery, which everybody enjoys. My 
old acquaintance would have thought but meanly of 
the man who gave a wish to view the country as his 
reason for driving ; but then the Ed Hulbert standard 
cannot always be maintained, and something must be 
pardoned to the weakness of human nature. 

In a sense, every horse driven by the owner for 
pleasure is a road horse. The fast trotter who speeds 
up and down the Brighton orthe Harlem road, draw- 
ing a single man in a gossamer wagon; the round, 
short-legged cob; the big, respectable, phlegmatic 
Goddard-buggy animal, who may be seen in Boston 
any fine afternoon hauling a master very much like 
himself out over Beacon Street ; the pretty, high- 
stepping pair in front of a mail phaeton; — all these 
are road horses, but none of them, excepting some- 
times the trotter, is a roadster in the strict sense. 
The road horse pai' excellence is a beast of medium 
size, who can draw a light carriage at the rate of 
seven miles an hour all day without tiring himself or 
his driver. He should be able to travel at least ten 
miles in an hour, twenty miles in two hours, sixty 
miles in a day ; and by this is meant that he should 
do it comfortably and '' handily," as the term is, and 
feel none the worse for the exertion. Such roadsters 



ROAD HORSES. 115 

are rare, — much more so now, in proportion to the to- 
tal number of our horses, than they were twenty-five 
years ago, or before the war; tlie reason being that 
tlie craze for fast trotters has thrown the roadster into 
the shade. Of course, almost any sound horse can be 
urged and whipped over the ground, " driven off his 
feed," perhaps, and so travel these distances in the 
time mentioned. Nothing is more common than for 
some broken-down animal to be pointed out by his 
cruel and mendacious master as one for w^hom ten or 
twelve miles an hour is only a sort of exercising gait ; 
the poor beast having very likely been ruined in the 
effort to accomplish some such feat which was beyond 
his capacity. The mere fact that a horse has gone a 
long way in a short time tells little about his powers ; 
the more important inquiry is. What was his condi- 
tion afterward ? A liveryman in Vermont declared 
not long ago, that at one time and another he had lost 
twelve hundred dollars' w^orth of horseflesh through 
the ignorant and murderous driving of customers 
who had endeavored to keep up with a certain gray 
mare, of extraordinar}^ endurance, that was owned in 
his vicinity for several years. 

A horse that will step off cheerfully and readily 
eight miles an hour, a pace so moderate that one never 
sees it mentioned in an advertisement, is much better 
than the average ; one that will do ten miles in that 
time and in the same way is an exceptionally good 
roadster; and the horse that goes twelve miles an 
hour with ease is extremely rare. A stable-keeper in 
Boston, of long experience, tells me that he has known 
but two horses that would travel at this last-men- 
tioned rate with comfort to tliemselves and the driver, 



116 R.OAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

though he has seen many others, pulling, crazy crea- 
tures, that would keep up a pace as fast, or even 
faster, till they dropped. Of these two pleasant 
roadsters, ca]3able of covering twelve miles in sixty 
minutes, one trotted all the way, up and down hill, 
whereas the other walked up the steep ascents, and 
went so much the faster where the grade was favor- 
able. The latter method is easier and better for 
most horses. 

The capabilities of a roadster having now been indi- 
cated in a general way, the hrst and most obvious in- 
quiry is. What will be the conformation aud appear- 
ance of a horse likely to possess them ? Upon this 
subject it is dangerous to dogmatize. For example, a 
flat-sided, thin-waisted animal is apt to be wanting in 
endurance, and yet there have been some notable ex- 
ceptions to this rule. A leading quality of the road 
horse is shortness ; that is, his back should be short, 
and, it may be added, straight. The same is true of 
his legs, especially as regards the cannon-bone. A 
short cannon-bone is perhaj)s the most nearly indispen- 
sable characteristic of a roadster. The knees should 
be large, the hocks well let down, and the hind quar- 
ters closely coupled to the back. The belly should be 
of good size, and round. George Borrow, a thorough 
horseman, makes the old hostler in " Lavengro " say : 
" Never buy a horse at any price that has not plenty of 
belly. No horse that has not plenty of belly is ever a 
good feeder, and a horse that an't a good feeder can- 
not be a good horse." He should have great depth of 
lung and a moderately broad chest. Good, sound feet 
of medium, size, and pastern joints neither straight 
nor oblique, are essential. It is no harm if his neck 



ROAD HORSES. 117 

be thick, but it is absolutely necessary that he should 
have a fine head and clear, intelligent eyes, with a 
good space between and above them. An English 
authority declares, " There was never yet a first-class 
race horse that had a mean head," and I believe 
this is equally true of roadsters. The ears also 
are an important point ; they should be set neither 
close together nor wide apart, and it is of the utmost 
consequence how they are carried. A lively, sensible 
horse, one who has the true roadster disposition, will 
continually move his ears, pointing them forward and 
backward, and even sideways, thus showing that he is 
attentive and curious as to what takes place about 
him, and interested to observe what may be coming. 
A beast with a coarse head, narrow forehead, dull, 
timorous eyes, and ears that tend to incline away 
from each other when held upright, and which are 
apt to be pointed backward, — such a horse is one 
to avoid as certainly deficient in mind, and prob- 
ably in courage and in good temper as well. Many 
lazy, sluggish animals of this sort are considered 
eminently safe for women to drive ; and so they are 
until the harness breaks or something else fright- 
ens them, when they become panic-stricken and tear 
everything to pieces. On the other hand, a high- 
strung but intelligent horse will quickly recover from 
a sudden alarm, when he finds that after all he has 
not been hurt. The manner rather than the fact of 
shying is the thing to be considered. 

When we come to inquire how good roadsters are 
bred, the answer can be given with more confidence, 
for the source of their endurance and courage is always 
found either in Arabian or in thorousrhbred blood. 



118 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

These two terms were at one time more nearly synony- 
mous than they are now. A thoroughbred (as we h^Lve 
seen, and as the instructed reader will scorn to be 
told) is one whose pedigree is registered in the English 
Stud Book, the first volume of which was published in 
1808. A preliminary volume, called " An Introduction 
to a General Stud Book," issued in 1791, contained 
the names of the chief mares and stallions of racing 
stock then living-. These are the "-foundation" horses 
from which the present thoroughbreds, English and 
American, have sprung. They were almost entirely 
of Oriental descent. Arabs were imported to Eng- 
land at a very early period, but not in such numbers 
as to effect any decided improvem.ent in the native 
breed until the reign of James I. This monarch es- 
tablished a racing stable, and installed therein some 
fine Arabian stallions. Charles I. continued the same 
policy, and the royal stud which he left at Tutbury 
consisted chiefly of Arab-bred horses. Soon after his 
execution, it was seized by order of Parliament ; but, 
happily, the change in dynasty did not interfere with 
the conduct of the stud. Cromwell, as is well known, 
had a sharp eye for a horse, and the best of the King's 
lot were soon " chosen " for the Lord Protector. 

Charles II., again, had no less a passion for horses, 
and almost the first order that he issued, after land- 
ing in England, was one to the effect that the Tutbury 
nags should be returned to the royal stables. This 
monarch imported some Arabian stallions, and a col- 
lection of mares called Poyal Mares, purchased on 
the Continent. Their breeding is not entirely known, 
but many of them were Arabs or Barbs. The Royal 
Mares fissure in the first volume of the Stud Book. 



ROAD HORSES. 119 

Many private breeders also added to the Arabian stock 
in England ; but it was not until the first half of the 
eighteenth century that the three horses were im- 
ported who have exercised the greatest influence upon 
the race of English thoroughbreds. These were the 
Byerly Turk, the Darley Arabian, and especially the 
Godolphin Arabian, or Barb, — probably the latter. 
The last named was a dark bay horse about fifteen 
hands high (Arab horses seldom exceed 14| hands), 
with a white off heel behind. He is said to have been 
stolen from his owner in Paris, where he was em- 
ployed in the menial task of drawing a water-cart, and 
his pedigree was never ascertained. It is the fashion 
of English writers to decry the Arabian blood; and it 
is true that the present thoroughbred, owing to many 
years of good food and severe training, is a bigger, 
stronger, swifter animal than the Arab ; ^ but the 
latest and perhaps the highest authority on this sub- 
ject, William Day, makes the significant admission, 
that all the best thoroughbreds now on the English 
turf trace back to one or more of the three Arab 
horses whose names have just been mentioned. 

The chief reason why a good roadster must have 

1 Some years ago, Haleem Pacha, of Egypt, who had inherited 
from his father, Abbass Pacha, a stud of Arabs estimated to have 
cost about $5,000,000, made a match with certain merchants at Cairo 
to run an eight-mile race for £400 a side. The Cairo mercliants 
sent to England and bought Fair Nell, an Irish mare, thorough- 
bred, or nearly so, that had been used by one of the Tattersalls as 
a park and covert hack. She was a beautiful bright bay mare, 
with black legs, standing about 15 hands li inches. The match 
took place within two weeks after Fair Nell landed in Egypt, and 
she won with ridiculous ease, beating the Pacha's best Arab by a 
full mile. She did the eight miles in 18| minutes, and jjulled up 
fresh. 



120 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

thoroughbred or Arab blood in his veins is, that from 
no other source can he derive the necessary nervous 
energy. This is even more important than the supe- 
rior bony structure of the thoroughbred or Arabian. 
Exactly what nervous energy is, nobody, I presume, 
can tell ; but it is something that, in horses at least, 
develops the physical system early, makes it capable 
of great exertion, and enables it to recover quickly 
from fatigue. The same, or, more correctly, a similar 
capacity, is remarked in mankind. Eeaders of Arctic 
travels, for example, must often have been struck by 
the fact that it is almost invariably the men, and not 
the officers, who succumb to the labor and exposure 
of a sledge journey. Loosely speaking, it may be that 
in the educated man, especially in the man whose 
ancestors also have been educated, the mind has ac- 
quired a degree of control over the body which can- 
not otherwise be attained. So also with horses. A 
thoroughbred is one whose progenitors for many gen- 
erations have been called upon to exert themselves to 
the utmost ; they have run hard and long, and strug- 
gled to beat their competitors. Moreover, they have 
had an abundance of the food best adapted to develop 
bone and muscle. Then, again, the care, the groom- 
ing, the warm housing and blanketing, which they 
have received, tend to make the skin delicate, the 
hair fine, the mane silky, the whole organization more 
sensitive to impressions, and consequentl}^ the nervous 
system more active and controlling. 

This same nervous energy usually prevents the road- 
ster from being what is known as a family horse, for 
he lacks the repose, the placidity and phlegm, of that 
useful but commonplace animal; he is apt to jump 



ROAD HORSES. 121 

like a cat, and to dance or run a little now and then 
in exuberance of spirits and superfluity of strength. 
Occasionally, to be sure, a horse is found who has 
great courage and endurance, and at the same time 
a perfectly temperate disposition. Such was Justin 
Morgan, head of the great roadster family, whose ori- 
gin I have described in a previous chapter. 

If the partisans of this family are not quite so 
fanatical as those of the Arab, it is because they are 
more numerous than the latter, and consequently the 
less driven to back themselves up by extravagant 
assertion. But they are not wanting in enthusiasm.^ 

As to Justin Morgan, the immortal soul, his history 
is a matter of profound indifference. Nobody cares 
whether his mother was a Jones from Connecticut, or 
a Smith from Massachusetts. But Justin Morgan, the 
little bay colt which the schoolmaster took in payment 
for a bad debt, has kept the name bright for more 
than a century. This is sad indeed, and yet greater 
men than Justin Morgan have suffered a similar fate. 
How many horsemen are aware that Ethan Allen was 
preceded by a biped of the same name, a brave officer 
of the Revolution, who commanded our forces at the 
taking of Ticonderoga ? 

The case of General Knox is even worse. He was 
one who cut a wide swath in his day, — a leader in the 
Revolution, a brave soldier, a counsellor much relied 
upon by Washington, a man of wealth, of birth and 

1 ''The Perfect Horse," a work by the Kev. W. H. H. Murray, 
is devoted to the praise of this family. A good illustrated history 
of Justin Morgan and his descendants, by Linsley, is now, I believe, 
out of print, and a more elaborate account of the family is in 
preparation by Mr. Joseph Battel], of Middlebury, Vermont, 



122 EOAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

breeding, — altogether, a personage of great impor- 
tance. And yet not long ago, when a certain rustic 
youth reared in Vermont paid his first visit to St. 
Albans in that State, in company with his mother, 
he stood aghast before a bronze statue there which 
represented a two-legged animal, clad in human clothes, 
and having apxmrently the attributes of a man. Un- 
derneath m large letters were inscribed the words, 
" General Knox." " By gosh, mother," exclaimed the 
astounded youth, "I always thouglit General Knox 
was a horse!" And so he was, and a very good one 
too, as we shall presently see. 

The gait of the Morgan horse is highly characteristic. 
Though sure-footed, he is apt to carry his fore feet 
close to the ground, taking short elastic steps, which, 
even when quickened to a rapid trot, seem to cost him 
the least possible effort. There is no swaying of the 
hips, no shaking of the whole frame, no pounding 
with the fore feet or high lifting of the hocks, but a 
smooth, easy, gliding motion. The Morgan both trots 
and gallops with his limbs well under him. 

A longer, wider gait is commonly associated with 
the trotting horse. In fact, until within the past few 
years it was thought that the ideal trotter carried his 
hind feet so wide as to plant them outside of the track 
left by his fore feet. Many, perhaps most, fast horses 
do travel in this way ; but, as a rule, the very fastest 
step no wider behind than in front. A long stride is 
however nearly, if not quite, essential to extreme 
speed ; and many Morgan horses, when moving at 
their best pace, lengthen their gait very much, and go 
perceptibly nearer to the ground. The Morgan action 
in front is, as a rule, not big enough for superlatively 



ROAD HORSES. 123- 

fast trotting, which is best performed by a peculiar 
and very graceful round motion of the fore legs. Some 

fast trotters have positively high action in front, so 

high as to seem like a waste of power. This is es- 
pecially true of Allerton, a Wilkes-Mambrino Patchen 
stallion whose record is 2.09J. This excessive action 
is also found in some Morgan strains, especially 
among Sherman Morgan's descendants. 

Country doctors are great adherents of the Morgan 
horse. '' The Morgan," writes one of this class, " will 
trot all day, except when ascending a hill. As he ap- 
proaches it, he will raise his head higher and higher. 
First, one pointed ear, then the other, will snap back- 
ward, then forward, as if he were asking permission 
to gallop; and then, if the driver does not object, 
he will lay both ears flat to his head and skim the rise 
like a bird, always striking into the same tireless 
trot when he reaches the summit." 

It was from a country doctor — and I trust a vera- 
cious one, for he was my grandfather — that I heard, 
long years ago, the following story. He was driving 
late one very dark night in autumn over a strange 
road. A violent rain had fallen during the preceding 
twenty-four hours, so that the highway was badly 
washed. Presently his horse, a Vermont Morgan, 
made a leap, and crashed through what seemed to be 
the upper branches of a tree, taking the gig after him 
very neatly. This was a little unusual, but still no 
harm had been done. Half a mile or so farther on, 
the horse made another jump : then came a crash and 
a shiver as before, and the gig reeled over another 
tree, as it appeared, poised for a moment on one 
wheel, and righted itself as the horse resumed his 
trot. 



124 ROAD, TKACK, AND STABLE. 

By this time the Doctor knew that he nmst be near 
a considerable river, with high banks, which flowed 
through those parts, and very soon he heard the 
waters roaring on the rocks below. But now his 
horse came to a dead stop, refusing to cross the 
brido-e. The Doctor urged him forward, and he took 
a few steps, but then moved back in his tracks. This 
was repeated twice. Finally, vexed at such unusual 
obstinacy in an animal long accustomed to rough and 
nocturnal travelling, the Doctor struck him with the 
whip. The horse squealed with disgust at this treat- 
ment, shook his head, advanced as before, and then 
backed again, and cast an inquiring glance behind him 
at his master. Now at last, the Doctor, dismount- 
ing, went forward to reconnoitre. And this is what 
he saw. The flooring of the bridge had been swept 
away completely by a flood ; nothing was left but the 
sleepers running from bank to bank, and it was on one 
of these sleepers that the horse had walked out so far 
as he could with safety to the gig and its occupant. 
The obstructions half a mile and a mile back, which 
the roadster had jumped, were brush fences put up 
to stop travel on the highway until the bridge could 
be repaired. 

Now that we are in the vein, I trust that the read- 
er will pardon me if I relate another anecdote of a 
Morgan roadster. This was a chestnut mare belong- 
ing to an old and highly respected " Vet." ^ One very 
dark night the Doctor was driving toward home at a 
fast trot on a level road, and in his proper place on 
the right hand side of it. Presently he heard, though 

he could not see, a wagon approaching at a rapid rate 

» 
1 Dr, riagg, of New Bedford, Massachusetts. 



ROAD HORSES, 125 

in the opposite direction ; but as his lights were burn- 
ing brightly, and the highway was a broad one, he 
thought nothing of it. Suddenly, however, before he 
could stop her, his steed made a violent jump to the 
left, crossing the road, and barely had she done so, 
when the approaching wagon, driven, as it appeared, 
by a drunken man, dashed by in the track which the 
Doctor's buggy had just left. The intelligent mare 
had waited till the last moment, thinking that the 
vehicle which she heard, would keep to the right, as 
it should have done; and then, foreseeing that a 
collision was otherwise inevitable, she had sprung out 
of the path of danger. 

I have sketched in a preceding chapter the most 
speedy and highly finished branch of the Morgan 
stock, which is that of the Lamberts, descended, 
through Ethan Allen, from Vermont Blackhawk. 
Vermont Blackhawk. had also a son called Vermont 
Hero, and Vermont Hero was the sire of General 
Knox ^ (whose name I have mentioned), a famous 
trotting stallion, and the founder of a subsidiary 
roadster family. This animal had every excellence 
except that of beauty. He was a stout, short-legged 
black horse, about fifteen hands high, with a good 
plain head. The Knox horses bear a wonderful fam- 
ily resemblance, and they are noted for their courage, 
endurance, docility, and intelligence. No branch of 
the Morgan family is more serviceable or more ami- 
able than this one, and, with the possible exception 
of the Lamberts, none is more speedy. 

^ His dam was by Searcher, a half-bred liorse descended from 
Diomed , and his second dam was also of Diomed blood. Searcher's 
dam was a Morgan, (ieneral Knox was therefore a combination of 
Morgan and thoroughbred. 



126 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

The Lamberts and the Kiioxes are, as I have said, 
decendants of Sherman, the handsome little chestnut 
son of Justin Morgan. 

There are also two families of fine roadsters and 
trotters descended from Bulrush, another son of Jus 
tin Morgan. These are the Fearnaughts and the Win- 
throp Morrills. Both of these families are inbred to 
Justin Morgan, and they show a great deal of quality 
and of spirit, notwithstanding the fact that Bulrush 
was a coarse horse, with a very heavy mane and tail, 
suggestive of Canadian blood on his dam's side. This 
fact goes far to prove that Justin Morgan was well 
bred on both sides. For if his dam had been — as 
some writers assert — a coarse-bred Canadian mare, 
like the dam of Bulrush, then inbreeding among the 
descendants of Justin Morgan, especially in the Bul- 
rush line, could hardly have produced horses so fine 
and bloodlike as are many of the Fearnaughts and of 
the Morrills. The Fearnaughts are usually chestnut 
horses ; much resembling the Lamberts, but somewhat 
larger, and perhaps a little more fiery. 

Another excellent family of roadsters is that of the 
Drews. The original Drew, a Maine horse, was foaled 
in 1842, his sire, it is said, being a pure thoroughbred, 
a bay horse sixteen hands high. Drew was a dark 
bay or brown, standing fifteen and a quarter hands, and 
weighing about a thousand pounds. He had good 
shoulders and a fine neck "light at the head, deep 
at the body," and well arched. His body was small ; 
his hips were long and beautifully turned. He had 
stout legs, long pasterns a thin mane, and a nice 
short coat. His dam also was very well bred, being 
by Sir Henry, a son of American Eclipse, out of a 



ROAD HORSES. 127 

mare by Winthrop Messenger. Her name was Boston 
Girl. The Drews, as might be presumed from this 
origin, are fine, spirited, hardy horses, with much 
style and dash, and very intelligent. One of them, a 
handsome bay stallion called Dirigo (whose dam was 
nearly thoroughbred), used to be driven without bit or 
rein through the town where his owner lived. Guided 
by the voice and w^iip of his driver, the horse would 
speed down the main street at a 2.40 gait, stop, turn 
around, and do whatever was required of him. 

One of the best roadsters ever known in New Eng- 
land is Bay Fearnaught, whose sire was a Fearnaught 
and whose dam was a Drew, so that in him these two 
hardy and courageous strains are united. His owner, 
Mr. David Nevins, once drove Bay Fearnaught from 
South Framingham to the Somerset Club in Beacon 
street, Boston, a distance of twenty-two miles or more, 
in one hour and twenty-eight minutes. The horse 
was driven to a sleigh containing two men, and the 
going was very good. Eeckoning the distance at 
twenty-two miles exactly, he maintained a speed of 
just fifteen miles an hour. Bay Fearnaught has 
trotted a mile to road wagon in 2.35, and two miles 
to a road wagon (wagon and driver weighing three 
hundred pounds) in 5.16. This horse is now twenty- 
three years old, and his owner reports him as being 
'•'sound as a bullet, and still able and willing to go 
fast." 

Given a roadster such as I have described, and a 
light, open wagon fitted with a stout spring, with 
lamps, and possibly with a small break ; given also a 
sympathetic companion and a mackintosh, — and, if 
you like, we will throw in a dog : thus provided, and 



128 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



? ^^-^^^•-5 



with all New England stretching out before you, what 
more delightful than to take the road at any time be- 
tween April and November ! It is pleasant to start in 
the freshness of a summer morning, with the prospect 
of seeing a new country, and with the comfortable 
assurance that it is a matter of no consequence if 
you become lost in traversing unknown paths. Your 
horse, I assume, has rested well, there is a cheerful 
air of anticipation about his ears, and the wheels turn 
smoothly and lightly on the newly oiled axles. It is 
pleasant to stop at noon in a patch of woods, beside 
some mountain stream or at the edge of a lake, where 
better quarters can be had than any tavern or summer 
hotel affords. The roadster is taken out, the dog lies 
down at the foot of a tree, stretching himself with a 
sigh of content, and a sort of gypsy camp springs up 
on the instant. After a half-hour's rest comes lun- 
cheon for man and beast ; the steed taking his oats 
out of a pail or nose-bag, the dog sharing lamb-sand- 
wiches with the two other carnivorous members of the 
party. This* meal concluded, — and there is no law 
against lighting a small lire in order to have a cup of 
hot tea or cocoa, — time remains for a nap, or for read- 
ing a novel, or, better yet, for reclining at ease and 
absorbing impressions from nature. A fresh start is 
made about two o'clock, or later if the weather be 
very hot, the Houyhnhnm having first been made to 
look spick and span, and able for his task. It is pleas- 
ant then to drive past green fields and groves of pine 
in the pensive light of late afternoon, and to watch the 
shadows lengthening on the mountains ; it is pleasant 
as the cows are coming home, as the sun is setting, 
and as the frogs begin their nightly chorus, to ap- 



ROAD HORSES. 129 

proach your destination, looking forward to supper 
and a bed, and leaving behind a day long to be remem- 
bered. Even the mishaps that befall the adventurous 
traveller, such as losing the road on a dark night 
when a thunder-storm is raging, and finding himself 
on a disused path through the woods instead of the 
highway, — even experiences of this kind are delight- 
ful in the retrospect. 

The evening may be less enjoyable. Ncav England 
taverns have a bad name, and they deserve it. Still, 
there is occasionally a good one, and there are others 
that possess some collateral attraction. The best, 
perhaps, are usually found in county towns where tra- 
dition lingers. I remember one such, well situated 
on a New Hampshire hill. The village was very 
small, containing three or four shops, a court-house, a 
miniature jail, and the tavern, a rambling structure 
with low ceilings. The rooms were but tolerable, the 
cooking was scarcely that, and yet the place had an 
air, a flavor, an attraction, which at first I was unable 
to resolve. At last I discovered that it consisted 
chiefly in this : the proprietor, a full-bearded, high- 
colored man of the old school, invariably and con- 
stantly wore a tall silk hat ; the only one, in all proba- 
bility, for ten miles around. Unthinking persons may 
perceive no significance in this ; but, rightly consid- 
ered, the high hat indicated a certain sense of self- 
respect, as well as a certain feeling for form and 
ceremony. If the hat had been assumed only when 
the wearer went outside, then it would have been 
simply a protection from the elements, or at best a 
matter of display for the villagers ; but being worn 
constantly indoors, without regard to times or sea- 



130 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

sons, it ceased to be a hat and became a badge. There 
was another good feature of this hotel ; the office, a 
long, low room, had a big open fireplace, where logs 
of wood burned cheerfully on a frosty night in au- 
tumn. The hostler, moreover, was an excellent one. 
True, he fairly reeked of chloroform (New Hampshire 
is a prohibition State), and his memory was not of the 
best, being unable to carry "four quarts of oats" 
more than fifteen minutes, or to distinguish it at the 
distance of half an hour from a bran mash; but he 
was gentle with his horses, and groomed them well. 

If the roadster is to be kept in good condition, and 
to come out fresh every morning, his master must be 
liberal with fees and vigilant in his oversight. Hos- 
tlers, — I say it with reluctance, — especially in large 
stables, are, generally speaking, worthless, drunken 
creatures ; and here and there a tavern-keeper is found 
base enough to cheat a horse out of his oats. " But," 
some self-indulgent reader may exclaim, " one might 
as well stay at home as to go off on a journey and be 
bothered with a horse." This would be distinctly the 
argument of a Yahoo, and if any one is in danger of 
being deceived by it I would refer him to what the 
famous Captain Dugald Dalgetty said upon the sub- 
ject: -'^It is my custom, my friends, to see Gustavus 
(for so I have called him, after my invincible master) 
accommodated myself; we are old friends and fellow 
travellers, and as I often need the use of his legs, I 
always lend him in my turn the service of my tongue 
to call for whatever he has occasion for ; ' and accord- 
ingly he strode into the stable after his steed without 
further apology." 

Horses often fall ill or break down on a journey, and 



ROAD HORSES. 131 

this usually happens uot from overdriving, but from 
allowing them to get cold, from watering them when 
they are hot, from feeding them when they are tired, 
and from general neglect. A tired roadster seldom 
gets a bed as deep and soft as he ought to have. The 
famous Mr. 8plan remarks upon this point as follows : 
" What horses want is plenty of fresh air, to be com- 
fortably clothed, and to have a good bed at all times. 
No matter how well you feed or care for a man, if you 
put him in a bad bed at night he will be very apt to 
find fault in the morning, and I think it is the same 
with a horse." The feet of a road horse also need at- 
tention, and his shoes are all-important. Most country 
blacksmiths do their w^ork like butchers, paring and 
burning the foot to fit the shoe, instead of adapting 
the iron to the hoof. Still, within a radius of five or 
ten miles it is usually possible to discover a single 
good workman in this regard, and the traveller can get 
upon his track by inquiring of horsy men in the vicin- 
ity. Every village in New England contains at least 
one enthusiastic person who is raising colts with the 
confident expectation of turning out a $20,000 trotter. 
This man will know who is the good blacksmith of 
the neighborhood. 

A word or two may be permitted here concerning 
the harness of a road or driving horse. With a light 
carriage, and where the country is level, breeching can 
be dispensed with, and a well made horse commonly 
looks better without it. Blinders, again, or winkers, 
are usually superfluous. An intelligent horse once 
accustomed to an open bridle is apt to shy less thus 
harnessed, for he can look about more freely. Besides, 
m the case of a skittish horse, it is an advantage for the 



132 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

driver to be able to watcii his eye, as well as his ear. 
Some pulling horses go better with blinders, and some 
nervous horses may be safer with them. It is a 
matter for experiment in the particular case. 

The question of check reins is not disposed of so 
easily, although many good jjeople have convinced 
themselves that check reins under all circumstances 
are cruel and unnecessary. I know of one person 
whose great object in life, apart from the earning of 
his daily bread, is to do away with, this part of the 
harness. The check rein, as all horsemen know, is 
often essential to the safety of human life and limb. 
People who write tracts or letters to the newspapers 
condemning it ui toto have no knowledge of horseflesh 
beyond what they derive from an acquaintance with 
some sedate family nag of mature years. If they had 
a stableful of young horses to exercise in harness 
in winter weather, they would change their minds on 
this point. Many gay horses can be driven in per- 
fect safety provided they wear check reins, especially 
if they wear the over-draw check ; whereas the same 
horses without checks would be likely at any moment 
to put their heads down and run away^ or, if they had 
a touch of deviltry, to kick up behind. It should not 
be forgotten that the use of the check rein makes it 
possible to use an easy bit, where without the check 
a severe bit would have to be employed; and any 
horse in his senses would prefer a check to a se- 
vere bit. 

But apart from these cases, which, after all, are few 
in number compared with the great mass of horses in 
the service of man, the check has another function, 
which is to steady the horse, and to make it easier 



ROAD HORSES. 133 

for liim to perform his work ; but if the check be too 
tight, it becomes a hindrance and a vexation, instead 
of a help. 

Charles Marvin relates an experience with a year- 
ling which shows the very great importance of not 
checking a horse too high : — 

" There was a certain colt at Palo Alto that showed 
remarkably well in the paddock, but after we got him 
in harness we found that he could not exhibit a trace 
of respectable speed. I drove him one day, and found 
that he could not trot a three-minute gait. . . . After 
vain and discouraging work I gave him up for that 
day, thinking that perhaps he was out of humor, and 
sulky, and a little bit tired. The next day I tried him 
again, but with no better results. ... So I unhitched 
him and turned him loose on the miniature track, and 
away he went as well as ever. A little study showed 
how he carried his head and how he balanced himself. 
I changed the check, harnessed him again, let his 
head free so that he could carry himself in his own 
way, and that same day he showed me a quarter in 
better than forty seconds." ^ 

It is natural for some horses to carry their heads 
low, for others to carry them at a medium height, and 
for a few to hold them high. But the check rein as 
commonly used disregards these natural differences, 
and pulls up the head of the unfortunate animal to a 
point which suits the whim or vanity of his owner. 
Even horsemen of great experience frequently err in 
this matter. The owner of Lady De Jarnette, a beau- 
tiful Kentucky mare, a noted prize-winner, always 
drove her with a particularly short, over-draw check, 

1 Training the Trotting Horse, page 218. 



134 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

whicli lie thought necessary. Her record was 2.29-J. 
One day, at his request, John Splan drove the mare, 
and by the simple device of letting out the check rein 
a few holes, Mr. Splan reduced her record to 2.24i. 

" Any one,'' he says, /' could have driven the mare 
the same mile, as she was very steady, and it required 
no particular skill to manage her. She simply wanted 
to be properly harnessed. It is just as easy to choke 
a horse by checking him too high, and forcing the 
tongue back into the entrance of the throat, as it 
would be in any other way. I have seen one or two 
horses die in harness that I am sure were choked to 
death." ^ 

The horse should never be checked on the driving 
bit, for this practice tends to spoil his mouth. Even 
when a side check is used, it should be attached to a 
small rubber or leather-covered flexible bit, not con- 
nected in any way with the driving bit. This ar- 
rangement is an uncommon one, but I have tested 
it thoroughly, and am convinced of its superiority. 

Of course, when a horse has the weight of a carriage 
to draw, the discomfort of a check rein too short is 
greatly increased. Splan says : " I think that, as a 
rule, road horses are checked entirely too high. To 
place a horse's head in that position, and then ask him 
to pull five hundred pounds of weight at a high rate 
of speed, is wrong. The horse is not only uncomfort- 

1 I quote from the instructive work " Life with the Trotters," to 
which I have referred in a previous chapter. Mr. Splan is a horse- 
man of great acuteness, and as a driver cool, resolute, and full of 
resource. A man of much experience on the track once remarked, 
" If a horse were going to trot for my life I should like to have him 
conditioned by Budd Doble and driven by John Splan." 



ROAD HORSES. 135 

able, but at a great disadvantage. I notice that in 
drawing weight most horses liold their heads in a 
medium position." 

As to the over-draw check, useful as it is in some 
cases, I am free to say that I wish it had never been 
invented, so grossly is it abused. How often do we 
see some wretched victim of man's cruelty straining 
up hill with his neck in an abnormal position, or 
standing still and denied the poor privilege of hang- 
ing his despondent and weary head. Nevertheless it 
is extremely probable that the same horse, if equipped 
with a moderate side check, would perform a journey 
more comfortably than if he wore no check. If his 
head were free, he would be apt to carry it somewhere 
between his fore legs, going more carelessly as he be- 
came tired, stumbling, and perhaps falling before he 
reached his destination ; whereas a moderate check 
would hold him together, and sustain his morale. 
The driver who gets out at the foot of every steep 
hill and unchecks his horse is, generally speaking, 
more humane than the man who dispenses with it 
altogether; and upon a journey, or upon a long after- 
noon's drive in the family carriage, this amount of 
trouble ought not to be begrudged. Besides, the exer- 
tion of hopping in and out (in addition, of course, to 
walking up all the steep pitches) will tend to ward 
off that stiffness which is likely to attack the legs of a 
lazy passenger. 

In a word, then, the check rein is sometimes neces- 
sary to the proper control of the horse, and more often 
it is an advantage to the horse himself; but when 
drawn too tight, especially if it be an over-draw check, 
it is a hindrance and a vexation, and frequently an 



136 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

instrument of torture. I like to drive a horse with- 
out check, martiugale, blinders, or whip. 

One great point in all-day driving is to make the 
noonday stop before the roadster begins to tire. Every 
horse has his distance, which is easily ascertained by 
experience, though allowance must of course be made 
for the state of the weather and of the roads. To this 
extent he will go along cheerfully, with ears and tail 
in their normal position ; but drive a little farther, 
and he begins to lag, his curiosity is gone, his ears 
lose their vivacity, his tail droops, and he wants to 
stop. It is well to make the noonday halt before this 
point is reached, even though half the journey be not 
completed. 

When it comes to undertaking a really great dis- 
tance, such as sixty or seventy miles in a day, or fifty 
miles for two or three days consecutively, then in- 
telligent driving and the best of care are indispensable. 
Every foot of the road must be watched, advantage 
taken of all the good going and slight declivities, the 
bad spots avoided as much as possible, and the move- 
ment and condition of the roadster kept under vigi- 
lant observation from morning till night. Unless the 
driver can sympathize with the horse, so as to know 
exactly what his frame of mind and bodily condition 
are all the way along, he is incompetent to handle 
him to anything like the best advantage. When a 
day's work of extraordinary length is attempted, the 
best plan is to stop for half an hour or so in the mid- 
dle of the morning, and also in the middle of the after- 
noon, in order to give the roadster a short rest and 
a luncheon of oats, making a longer halt, of course, 
at noontime. The recent Badminton work on driv- 



ROAD HORSES. 187 

ing states the old Eugiish custom in this regard as 
follows : — 

•^Before the advent; of railways, fifty miles in a 
day was not considered too much for a pair of horses 
to do, and that in a lumbering travelling carriage. 
The rules laid down for such a journey were, to go 
ten miles and bait for fifteen minutes, giving each 
horse an opportunity to wash out his mouth, and a 
wisp of hay ; then to travel another six miles and stop 
half an hour, taking off the harness, rubbing the horses 
well down, and giving to each half a peck of corn. 
After travelling a further ten miles, hay and water 
were given as at first, when another six miles might 
be traversed; and then a bait of at least two hours 
was considered necessary, and the horses were given 
hay and a feed of corn. After journeying another ten 
miles, hay and water, as before, were administered, and 
the rest of the journey might be accomj)lished without 
a further stop, when the horses were provided with a 
mash for their night meal, and if the weather were 
cold and wet some beans were thrown in. This calcu- 
lates a pace averaging six or seven miles an hour." 

I am acquainted with a Morgan filly, five years old, 
that, without any special preparation, travelled last 
fall from the White Mountains to Boston, one hundred 
and forty-seven miles, in exactly three days, with per- 
fect ease. The first day she went but thirty-five 
miles, the second fifty-four, the third fifty-eight. Her 
owner furnishes me with the following account of the 
last day : — 

" I started from Portsmouth at eight a. m., drove 
fifteen miles, and stopped for three quarters of an 
hour, taking the mare out, rubbing her legs well, and 



138 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

giving her two quarts of oats. I then drove twelve 
miles, and stopped again in a patch of woods for two 
hours. The mare had some hay, procured of a neigh- 
boring farmer, with three quarts of oats, and was well 
groomed. Starting again at about four o'clock, I drove 
to Salem, arriving there soon after six, the distance 
being about fifteen or sixteen miles. The horse 
seemed perfectly fresh, but as my three days would 
not be up till eleven p. m. (inasmuch as I started at 
eleven a. m. on the first day), I concluded to stop for 
dinner. The mare was put into a stable and rubbed 
down. Her legs were bandaged, and she was pro- 
vided with some hay and two or three quarts of oats, 
which she ate greedily. At seven thirty she was har- 
nessed again, and came up to Boston as readily as if 
she were out for the first time that day. Her eye was 
perfectly bright when I arrived, she exhibited no 
sign of fatigue, and would doubtless have been good 
for twenty miles more." 

This was a creditable performance to have been 
done so easily, especially as the road from Portsmouth 
is flat and sandy. A moderately hilly road is much 
less fatiguing. The same filly, it may be added, when 
but three years old, made seventy miles in a day of 
twelve hours, drawing a skeleton wagon. Such a 
journey would have ruined most young horses, but 
the next morning, when turned out to pasture, she 
threw up her heels, as sound and lively as any colt 
in the lot. 

Another Morgan mare,^ of similar appearance, being 
black, and " a compactly built, nervy, wiry animal of 
the steel and whalebone sort," is credited with going 

1 The property of Mr. Farnum, of Waltham, Massachusetts. 



ROAD HORSES. 139 

eight miles in thirty-seven minutes, returning over the 
same ground in thirty-six minutes. On another occa- 
sion she accomplished forty-three miles in three hours 
and twenty-five minutes. This is great roading. 

Vermont Champion, a son of Sherman Morgan and 
grandson of Justin Morgan, was once driven by his 
owner, Mr. Knights, from Concord, Vermont, to Port- 
land, Maine, with a load of pork. The trip down, 
presumably in a sleigh, took three or four days, the 
distance being very nearly, if not quite, one hundred 
and ten miles. On arriving at Portland, Mr. Knights 
found a letter that had been sent by stage, informing 
him of illness in his family ; and the next morning he 
started for home, w4iich he reached about eight o'clock 
in the evening of the same day. " Old men are now 
alive,'' says my informant, " who saw Champion the 
next day, and who state that he looked fit to repeat 
the exploit." 

But perhaps the most remarkable horse of which I 
have been able to obtain a trustworthy account is Joe 
Renock, a blood bay inbred Morgan stallion of great 
style and beauty, kept for many years at Sherbrooke 
in the Province of Quebec. He stood about 15.1 
and weighed about eleven hundred pounds. A for- 
mer owner thus describes him : " He had the hand- 
somest head I ever saw on a horse. His neck was 
perfect ; so was his body. He had the most beautiful 
long mane and tail that ever graced a horse. In 
passing your finger through them, the hair felt as soft 
as silk. He had as perfect a set of legs and feet as 
ever was seen. His legs were of the flinty kind, as 
clean and smooth as those of a deer." Like Justin 
Morgan, Joe Renock was excellent under saddle. 



140 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

especially as a charger. Colonel Lovelace, an English 
officer, a veteran of the Crimea, who rode Joe Renock 
on one occasion, declared him to be the most perfect 
saddle horse that he had ever seen. But it is for his 
roadster qualities chiefly that I cite him here. JMr. 
John Harkness, an old horseman, and, as I am in- 
formed on good authority, a truthful man gives the 
following account. ^ 

" On one occasion I drove this stallion ninety miles 
in one day, under adverse circumstances, which I will 
relate. I started with him on a journey of a hundred 
and fifty miles. It was on the first day of August, 
1869. Joe Renock carried about one hundred pounds 
of surplus flesh, and was hitched to a phaeton top 
buggy, holding my wife and myself. I calculated to 
make the journey in three days. I left home at six 
o'clock in the morning and drove to Drummondville, 
a distance of about fifty miles. I landed in Drum- 
mondville at noon of the same day. I am wrong in 
saying that I drove him. I should say he pulled me 
every inch of the way. He would not pull to fight 
his driver, but he would go right up on the bit, and 
keep his driver busy all the time. 

" I put him up, intending to stop for the night at 
Drummondville. After he cooled off, I took him out 
and groomed him. After I got through with my job, 
I led him out by the halter, and he played around me 
like a squirrel. My wife stood on the veranda and 
remarked, ' He feels well after his drive.' I told her 
to get ready, and we would drive to a place called Mos- 
cow, about twenty-five miles farther, as I did not like 
to stay at Drummondville. 

1 In the American Horse Breeder of April 22, 1892. 



ROAD HORSES. 14i 

" The day was hot, and it was a sandy country, 
which made it hard wheeling. I left Drummondville 
at two o'clock, and he pulled me by the bit all the way 
to Moscow. When I got there the sun was quite high. 
I then reined him for Sorrell, fifteen miles beyond, 
and the last three miles were through a sandy pine 
wood. Here he commenced to rave so much that I 
was obliged to get out of the buggy at two different 
times, and hold him by the bit until I rested my arms. 
So much for Joe Renock, after driving him ninety 
miles. 

" I rubbed him dry, and he was in the stable before 
sunset. I hitched him up the next morning, and he 
went up to the bit every rod of the sixty miles, the 
balance of my journey, and did his last with as much 
ease as any mile in the trip." ^ 

Like most other great horses, Joe E-enock derived 
his energy and strength largely from his dam, who is 
thus described by the Vermont farmer who owned 
her : " She was a blocky fifteen-hand dark brown or 
black mare with white strip and one white hind foot, 
full of pluck and nerve. No better mare ever trod 
the green hills of Vermont. I have driven her for 
hundreds of miles, and followed her for days on the 
farm. I have known her to be taken up from the 
pasture and driven seventy miles in a day, and it did 
not take her all day to do it." Joe Renock, foaled 
at Poultney, Vermont, about the year 1857, was this 
mare's last colt, she being then twenty years of age. 

The shortest time for one hundred miles is that 
made by Conqueror, harnessed to a sulky, at Centre- 
ville. Long Island, in 1853, which was eight hours. 

^ See also page 200 for an instance of good roading. 



142 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

fifty-five minutes, and fifty-three seconds. Several 
other horses have done this distance in less than ten 
hours. Fifty miles were trotted at Providence, Rhode 
Island, in 1835, by a horse called Black Joker, in 
three hours and fifty-seven minutes. Several horses 
have trotted twenty miles within an hour, the first to 
do it being Trustee, a half-bred horse. One of the 
few defeats that Flora Temple ever suffered was in a 
match to trot twenty miles within an hour, harnessed 
to a skeleton wagon ; " that kind of going on in a 
treadmill sort of way," as Hiram Woodruff remarks, 
" not being her strong point." 

An American trotting horse, called Tom Thumb, 
said to resemble a Canadian pony, and owned by Mr. 
Osbaldestone, in England, covered one hundred miles 
in ten hours and seven minutes, the vehicle weighing 
nearly or quite one hundred pounds. An English- 
bred mare was afterward matched to accomplish the 
same task. " She was," according to Youatt, " one of 
those animals rare to be met with, that could do al- 
most anything as a hack, a hunter, or in harness. On 
one occasion, after having, in following the hounds 
and travelling to and from cover, gone through at 
least sixty miles of country, she fairly ran away with 
her rider over several ploughed fields. She accom- 
plished the match in ten hours and fourteen minutes. 
. . . She was a little tired, and, being turned into a 
loose box, lost no time in taking her rest. On the 
following day she was as full of life and spirit as 
ever. This is a match," Mr. Youatt continues, ^' which 
it is pleasant to record; for the owner had given 
positive orders to the driver to stop at once on her 
showing decided symptoms of distress, as he valued 



ROAD HORSES. 



143 



her more than anything he could gain by her enduring 
actual suffering." 

No sensible person will care to drive fifteen miles 
in an hour or seventy in a day, except as a feat ; but 
if you wish to travel forty or fifty miles, it is a great 
thing to have a roadster who is capable of going 
seventy or eighty. To ride behind a tired horse is 
fatiguing and depressing in the extreme, whereas 
there is a sense of exhilaration in covering a long 
distance which is yet well within the known powers 
of your steed. In fact, a good roadster is something 
like a satisfactory bank account, — your pleasure in 
his capacity is great almost in proportion as the drafts 
which you make upon it are small. 





VI. 



SADDLE HOESES. 



WHAT are the marks of a good saddle horse ? 
Perhaps the most important one is the pos- 
session of " riding shoulders," — i. e. long, sloping 
shoulders, terminating in rather high, thin withers. 
Such shoulders are indispensable for a good jumper, as 
a horse always lands on his fore feet, and they make 
the animal easy to sit. It was said of Fair Nell, the 
Irish mare who beat Haleem Pacha's best Arab in 
an eight-mile race,^ that " she had such beautiful 
shoulders, with so much before you, and with such 
an elastic stride, that it was easy, even delightful, 
to sit on her, although her temper was hot, and at 
times she plunged violently," 

' See page 1 1 9. 



SADDLE HORSES. 145 

A saddle horse should have a rather short back, 
the least bit curved, which is the true Arab forma- 
tion. Mr. 8. W. Parlin has indicated this shape in 
the following description of Flying Eaton, a noted 
Maine horse: "While he had a strong, broad loin 
and excellent coupling, there was a graceful down- 
ward curvature of the spine in front of the coupling 
which gave him in some degree the appearance of 
being slightly sway-backed, — a conformation often 
found among the descendants of Sherman Morgan." ^ 
"Just the curve," writes Mr. Palgrave, describing 
the Arab horses in the Emir's stables at Hail, " which 
indicates springiness without any weakness." 

But it must be admitted that the rule as to short 
backs is fairly riddled with exceptions. Very speedy 
horses, as distinguished from weight-carriers and 
"stayers," commonly have backs of medium or even 
greater length ; and Whyte-Melville states that the 
best three weight-carriers he ever knew all had the 
fault of being overlong in the back. 

Other marks of a good saddle horse are short 
cannon bones, strong quarters and hocks, — it is an 
old stable aphorism, " No 'ocks, no 'unter," — a neck 
rather long, so that his w4nd may be good, feet 
rather small, so that he may step lightly, and 
pasterns somewhat oblique and yielding. A short, 
straight pastern makes a hard gait, and is apt to 
break down, and a pastern too long or too oblique 
is an even greater indication of Vv^eakness. The pas- 
tern of a saddle horse is next in importance to 
the shoulder. Upon it depends his elasticity, and 
to a considerable extent his jumping power, and 

1 See page 197. 
10 



l-iG ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

it is at this point that race horses most frequently 

give out. 

A good saddle horse, like a good horse for any 

other purpose, should be well "ribbed up." A con- 
siderable space between the last rib and the hip 
bone almost invariably indicates a want of toughness. 
Animals thus built usually require more grain, and 
are capable of less work, than " close-ribbed " horses. 
A thin waist also commonly shows a want of strength^ 
but, as I have remarked with reference to harness 
horses, this is by no means an unfailing sign. The 
famous steeple-chaser, Emblem, a beautiful bay mare 
with wonderful shoulders, had no " middle piece," 
and yet she was a noted stayer. Hempstead, an 
American gelding remarkable as a jumper, was an- 
other instance of a wasp-waisted but strong horse. 
It may be doubted, however, if in these and in other 
like cases the want of strength is not supplied by 
extraordinary courage and resolution. A coarse-bred 
horse that was also thin-waisted would probably 
show, as well as feel, a lack of endurance. 

A horse with low withers is, generally speaking, 
unlit for the saddle, especially if he stands higher 
behind than in front, — a conformation apt to be 
found both in fast runners and in fast trotters. 
When such horses have good legs and feet, they can 
carry a light man without danger of becoming knee- 
sprung, but weight-carrying is not their forte, and 
I am inclined to think that they will never trot so 
fast under saddle as they will in harness ; whereas, 
as a rule, a trotter is estimated to be about three 
seconds (per mile) faster under saddle than in har- 
ness. During one whole winter I rode a horse of 



SADDLE HORSES. 147 

this shape, never alio wing liini to gallop, but often 
urging him to a fast trot ; and yet in all that time 
only once did he strike the long, rapid gait of which 
he was capable, and which he would invariably show 
when harnessed to a light vehicle. This motion, 
the extended trot of a really fast horse, is very 
peculiar, and usually not very comfortable to the 
rider, the hind legs being well brought up under the 
animal at every stride, and also, in many cases, going 
wider than the fore feet, so that the man in the 
saddle feels as if he might be thrown over his horse's 
head. And yet some trotters step so smoothly that 
they can be sat close at a 2.30 gait. 

If your object in riding is mainly that of exercise, 
almost any sound, active horse that does not stumble 
will answer the purpose. If his trot be hard, the 
more exercise you will get, and the better practice 
you will have. The worst horses to ride are those 
cold-blooded, nerveless animals, which, tiring after 
a few miles, let themselves go, and actually tumble 
down, unless kept up to the mark, rather than take 
the trouble to remain on their legs. Many coarse- 
bred cobs are of this character. They wear a decep- 
tive appearance of strength, have stout limbs and 
broad chests, but lack nervous energy and courage. 

I remember taking a faint-hearted cob, the property 
of another, from the town in which I lived to the city 
where he was to be sold at auction on the following 
day, a distance of fifteen or twenty miles. Before we 
had accomplished one quarter of the journey, while 
cantering down a very slight decline, the cob fell. It 
is no joke to break the knees of a friend's horse, and 
the sympathetic reader will easily imagine — as I shall 



148 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

never forget — tlie feeling of horrid anticipation with 
which I glanced at his legs. But fortunately^ the 
ground being soft, the hair had not been taken off, so 
that the cob's selling value remained as it had been. 
I remounted, and "carrying his head in my hand," 
rode the rest of the way, divided between the fear of 
being late for an important engagement and of spoil- 
ing the horse, to say nothing of my own neck. But 
when your mount arrives at this condition, when he 
feels like a block of wood beneath you, all his elas- 
ticity being gone, and especially if he begins to stum- 
ble, the better plan is to get oft' and walk. The most 
skilful riding cannot with any certainty keep him on 
his legs. However, if your journey be a matter of 
life and death, or if you prefer to take the gambler's 
chance of finishing it without an accident, your only 
course is to maintain a firm hold of the bit, — not a 
dead pull, but a " sensational," enlivening pull, and at 
the same time to touch up the faltering nag with whip 
or spur. If he is allowed when tired to drop into 
his natural lethargic condition, he will quickly be 
down in the dust. 

Stumbling horses will sometimes fall even when 
going at a walk; they do so most frequently at a jog 
trot, and the likeliest spot for such an accident is near 
the bottom of a hill, where the ground still declines, 
but, the steepness of the descent being past, the horse 
relaxes his attention. " It is not at a desperate ' hiv- 
erman' pace, and over very bad roads, that a horse 
tumbles and smashes his knees, but on your par- 
ticularly nice road, when the horse is going gently 
and lazily, and is half asleep, like the, gemman on 
his back." 



SADDLE HORSES. 149 

It is usually thought that high-stepping horses are 
less likely to fall than low steppers or "daisy-cut- 
ters," but this I believe to be an error. Some horses 
occasionally fall, but otherwise never stumble, whereas 
a low-stepping horse may stumble frequently, but 
never come down, always saving himself with the 
other leg. It is a matter chiefly of legs and feet, and 
of courage ; but a nag who puts his toe down first is 
almost sure to be a stum bier. 

I need not say that the saddle horse, above all 
others, being necessarily an intimate companion of his 
master, should possess intelligence and good temper ; 
he should have fine, well-bred ears, a large, expressive 
eye, a tapering nose, and nicely cut, expansive nos- 
trils. To bestride a lop-eared, coarse-headed beast 
would give little satisfaction to a person of proper 
equine susceptibilities. But it is astonishing what 
small importance professional horsemen com.monly 
attach to this vital matter of intelligence, the reason 
perhaps being that they take the purely mechanical 
view of the horse, considering him merely as a crea- 
ture who is able, or unable, as the case may be, to get 
over the ground and to carry a weight. I have known 
many instances where jockeys or dealers, being em- 
ployed to buy a horse for a customer, have picked 
out an animal which had all the requisites except the 
saving one of good sense. 

I remember one case in particular where a keen 
judge of horseflesh was sent to Kentucky for a saddle 
horse. The man paid a large price and came back 
with an admirable beast, 3''oung, sound, thoroughly 
taught, good in harness as well as under saddle, fast, 
and, except for the shape of his head, very handsome. 



150 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

But the head was ill-shaped, and the eye had the un- 
easy, glassy, indescribable, but easily recognized look 
of a stupid and dangerous animal. Such he proved to 
be ; and after being half starved to "keep him down," 
and then " fed up " to make him look fat again, he 
brought matters to a crisis by running away. Where- 
upon he was sold at auction for about one twentieth 
of the sum that he had cost. 

Only the other day, a trainer of many years' expe- 
rience assured me that there was nothing in the ex- 
pression of a horse's eye, — nothing at all; the only 
significance was in the shape of the head. Now the 
shape of the head is significant, but not more so than 
the eye. 

The horse that I have described as suitable for the 
saddle is, as the reader will doubtless have perceived, 
most apt to be found among half-bred animals, — mean- 
ing those that have some fraction, it may be a very 
large or a very small one, of thorough-bred blood, — 
and the nearer thoroughbred, the better. 

Good carriage horses are often described as hunters 
of a large pattern ; the Cleveland Bays were part-bred 
horses ; the Yorkshire Coach Horse Society counts a 
thoroughbred out cross ("two in and one out") as 
not disqualifying the animal thus bred for recording 
in its book ; and in general it may be said that good 
horses for riding and driving are half-breds. 

But, as no horseman needs to be told, the half-bred 
is often a very poor animal, combining the defects of 
both strains and this is especially the case when all 
the hot blood is on one side, and all the cold blood on 
the other. The produce of a thorougbred horse and 
a cart mare is sometimes a grand beast, with the spirit 



SADDLE HORSES. 151 

of its sire and the strength of its dam ; but more often 
animals thus bred are leggy, slab-sided, and nerveless. 

The same result is likely to follow when two horses 
of about equal breeding, but of very antagonistic 
qualities, are mated. General Knox and Lady Thorne 
were nearly, if not quite, the best trotting horse and 
mare of their day. Lady Thorne was out of a thor- 
oughbred mare by a horse bred in the same way. 
The dam of General Knox was also by a thoroughbred. 
But General Knox was a coarse, stout-limbed, rather 
heavy-headed horse, whereas Lady Thorne had the 
quality of a thoroughbred, and, as might have been 
expected, their foal, General Washington, proved to 
be a rangy, weedy beast, far inferior to his sire and 
dam. However, some of General Washington's colts 
are very hue animals, the inherited excellence which 
was latent in him having appeared, as often happens 
in similar cases, in the second generation. 

When it comes to racing, or steeple-chasing, and 
even to fox-hunting in the fast counties of England, 
something different is required. Of late years the 
best steeple-chasers have commonly been thorough- 
bred ; and it is said that no horse with the slightest 
taint of cold blood in his pedigree can now live in 
" the first flight '■ of the Quorn hunt. 

It is a fact of some interest, that during the past 
forty years or so both fox-hunting and prize-fighting 
have undergone a similar change, in each case a long, 
slow process having been replaced by a short, quick 
one. The newly invented ■•hurricane rushes" cor- 
respond to the tremendous bursts of speed with which 
the Leicestershire riders now chase the fox ; and the 
loser's fate in a modern prize-fight is commonly de- 



152 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

cided in about the same time that it takes to kill the 
speedy Keynard of the present day. 

The time may come when the universal horse for 
harness or for saddle will be a thoroughbred. " Thor- 
oughbreds/' says one writer in the Badminton volume 
on Racing, ^' are the best for all kinds of work, except 
of course that of heavy draught horses," and thorough- 
bred mares have been used for ploughing on at least 
one farm in England. The thoroughbred horse is not 
necessarily a long-legged greyhound kind of beast. 
Even at this day, though not so commonly as when 
the process of developing a racing machine from 
Eastern stock began, thoroughbreds are found with 
comparatively short legs, well rounded bodies, necks 
inclined to arch, and in general not devoid of those 
graceful curves which, in the modern racer, have 
mainly been supplanted by straight lines. Such a 
thoroughbred is Mr, Burdett-Coutts's hunter sire. True- 
fit ; such also is the well known American horse, Duke 
of Magenta ; and such was Glencoe, one of the most 
beautiful horses ever imported to this country.^ 

In this neighborhood most men who ride own but 
one saddle horse, and commonly their stud begins and 
ends with him. He should be, therefore, an all-round 
horse, fit to carry his master from a suburban home to 
the city, and to do this day after day on hard roads. 
He should also be ready at all times for a spin across 
country, — a fast trotter, a fairly good jumper, and, 

^ Gleucoe was foaled in 1831, and imported in 1837. He was 
by Sultan : dam, Trampoline by Tramp ; second dam, Web by 
Waxer, Many trotters, including Jay -Eye-See with a record of 
2.10, trace to Glencoe through their dams. His thoroughbred son^ 
Rifleman, is the sire of Colonel Lewis, whose record is 2.18|. 



SADDLE HORSES. 153 

above all, an intelligent, docile, sound, tough horse. 
But we see very few such. Some men ride pretty, fat 
cobs, that have little " go " and no endurance ; others 
are mounted on tall, bony, blood-like animals, good 
for hunting, but not suited to a daily journey over 
macadamized roads and pavements. Others again 
ride long-legged, coarse-jointed, coarse-haired char- 
gers that have no indication of good breeding excejjt 
the quite unnecessary amount of daylight which is 
visible beneath them. 

What is wanted is a compact, elastic, rather small 
horse, with legs and feet of iron. Such pre-eminently 
is the Arab, and it cannot be doubted that, if Arabs of 
pure lineage could be bred in this country, they would 
furnish a useful and popular breed of saddle horses. 
Their inferiority to thoroughbreds as racers is incon- 
testable, but beside the point. 

In India, imported English and Australian horses 
give the Arabs, three stone, country-bred s two stone, 
and Capes fourteen pounds. ''These country -bred 
horses," says an English officer, "having a strong 
dash of thoroughbred English blood, are generally 
faster than Arabs, for say six furlongs, but do not 
stay as well." The same authority, after speaking of 
the comparative slowness of Arabs, continues : " Yet, 
for all that, there is a great deal to be said in their 
favor as high-mettled racers. They are, as a rule, 
game, honest, and grand stayers ; so sound that an 
inexperienced owner may take all sorts of liberties 
with them in their training without breaking them 
down ; docile and easy to ride." Another peculiarity 
of Arab horses, which shows the homogeneousness 
and fixed character of the breed, is the fact that they 
can all run about equally fast. 



154 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

The endurance of the Arab is probably greater than 
that of any other living horse. A match against time 
was won in 1840 by an Arab horse at Bungalore, in 
the presidency of Madras, who travelled four hundred 
miles in four consecutive days. Mr. Frazer, in his 
^' Tartar Journeys," relates that an Arab carried him 
five hundred and twenty-two miles in six days, rested 
three, went back in five, rested nine, and returned in 
seven. What thoroughbred could do as much ? But 
I am bound to add, some authorities think that the 
thoroughbred horse can outstrip and outlast the Arab 
over any distance. Mr. S. Sidney, for example, a 
very high authority, believes this to have been true 
of Fair Nell, the Irish mare already mentioned. 

The following description of Leopard, one of the 
two Arabian horses presented to General Grant by the 
Sultan in 1876, indicates so clearly certain points of a 
good horse, and especially of a good saddle horse, that 
I cannot forbear quoting it in full.^ 

" In front of the stables (at Ash Hill, near Washing- 
ton), upon a beautiful table-land overlooking acres of 
meadow pasturage with scattered barns and hay-ricks, 
was a level spot of close fine turf, splendid to show 
horses upon. Upon this the colored groom Addison 
led out the Arab, Leopard. He was a beautiful 
dapple-gray, fourteen and three quarters hands high ; 
his symmetry and perfectness making him appear 
much taller. As he stood looking loftily over the 
meadows below, I thought him the most beautiful 
horse I had ever seen. With nostrils distended and 
eyes full of fire, I could imagine he longed for a run 

1 It is taken from Mr. Randolph Huntington's interesting book, 
" General Grant's Arabian Horses." 



SADDLE HORSES. 155 

in his desert home. Addison gave him play at the 
halter, and he showed movements no horse in the 
world can equal but the pure-bred Arabian. He 
needed no quarter-boots, shin-boots, ankle-boots, scalp- 
ing-boots, or protections of any kind ; and yet the 
same movements this Arabian went through would 
have blemished every leg and joint upon an American 
trotting horse, even though he had been able to at- 
tempt the impossible activity. 

" He was now brought to a stand-still that I might 
examine him ; not cocked on one leg, pointed in an- 
other, or straddled, as our horses would be after such 
violent exercise, but bold and erect on all fours, as 
when first led out. 

" I began at his head. The ear was very small and 
fine, much as it was in old Henry Clay. The muzzle 
was small and fine, the mouth handsome and lips very 
thin, as were the nostrils. Between the eyes he was 
full and broad, while the eyes themselves Avere large, 
brilliant, and of the speaking kind. I lifted the lids, 
and they too were thin and delicate, not coarse and 
heavy, as in our big-mouthed, thick-lipped, long, 
heavy-eared American horse. The jowls were very 
deep, but wide between (the peculiarity so much con- 
demned in Henry Clay). The windpipe was large 
and free, running low into the breast. The neck was 
beautifully arched, giving the impression of a thin 
crest, which I expected to find from numerous writers' 
reports. Imagine my surprise when, upon running 
my hand from between the ears down, I found a 
big, thick, hard crest,^ as if a three or even four inch 
new cable rope were inside. This was exactly such a 

1 This is a characteristic of the Barb, but not of the .Arab. 



156 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

crest as was in old Henry Clay, — it lopped over like 
a bag of meal with old age ; and I remembered having 
an old Messenger stallion, years before, with exactly 
such a crest, which, falling over m the same way with 
age, was a great torment to my pride. 

" The fetlocks could not be found ; there were none. 
The warts at point of ankle were wanting, and the 
osselets were very small. Large coarse osselets show 
cold, mongrel blood. . . . The mane was very fine and 
silky, falling over so as to cause one to believe the 
crest was a knife-blade, with blade up, for thinness. 
. . . jSTow for his gaits. I had Addison lead him on 
the walk to and from me, say a distance of two or 
three hundred feet, that I might see the position of 
his feet in walking. There was no twisting behind, 
nor paddle in front, but straight, clean, elastic step- 
ping. I now had him pass me at the side, that I 
might see his knee, and his hock and stifle action. 
From the walk I had him moved upon the trot, and at 
either walk or trot every movement was perfect. The 
knee action was beautiful ; not too much, as in our 
toe-weighted horses, nor stiff and staky, as in the 
English race horse, but graceful and elastic, beauti- 
fully balanced by movement in the hock and stifle." 

It cannot be doubted, 1 think, that the Arab horse 
has no superior for what might be called miscella- 
neous saddle use, and in particular for polo. Many 
of the best polo ponies in England are pure Arabs, 
and others are partly of Arab blood. The English 
polo players state, morcDver, that the Arab bred 
ponies are instructed in the game more easily and 
quickly than any others. 

In this country the first breed of saddle horses was 



SADDLE HORSES. lo « 

that of the Narragausett pacers. These horses appear 
to have resembled very closely the palfrey of the Mid- 
dle Ages, and they were developed for the same pur- 
pose, namely, as a means of easy locomotion at a time 
when roads were bad and vehicles uncomfortable. 
The Narragansett pacers were in their heyday about 
the middle of the eighteenth century, and they origi- 
nated, as the name implies, in Rhode Island, not far 
from Newport. ''They carried," said a writer in 
the North American Review many years ago, '-fair 
equestrians from one to another of the many hospi- 
table dwellings scattered over the fields of ancient 
Aquidneck in Bishop Berkeley's time." 

How these horses were bred cannot now be discov- 
ered. There is a tradition, w^hich Frank Forester 
seems to accept, that they were of Spanish origin ; 
and there is reason to think that the place of their 
breeding was that long neck of land on Narragansett 
Bay known as Point Judith, — the scene of many a 
shipwreck. In the latter part of the seventeenth cen- 
tury there flourished one John Hull, a rich and pious 
merchant of Boston, at one time Treasurer of the Col- 
ony. In a letter written in 1677 to one who owned 
the tract just mentioned jointly with himself, Mr. Hull 
proposed to shut it off from the mainland by a stone 
wall, "that no mongrel breed might get thereon," and 
in the enclosure thus made to rear ''a very choice 
breed for coach horses, some for the saddle, some 
for draught." 

^Ir. Hull, it thus appears, contemplated the rearing 
of harness as well as saddle horses, and it is a fact, 
gathered from the custom-house records, that carriage 
horses as w^ell as pacers were afterward numerously 



158 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

exported from lUiode Island. The only evidence, 
however, that I can find, tending to show that Mr. 
Hull's project was carried out is the following in- 
dignant and righteous letter written by him some 
years later to one William Heffernan : " I am in- 
formed that you are so shameless that you offered 
to sell some of my horses. I would have you know 
that they are by God's good providence mine. Do 
you bring me in some good security for my money 
that is justly owing, and I shall be willing to give 
you some horses, that you shall not need to offer to 
steal any." 

At all events, the Narragansett pacers had a wide 
reputation, and were sold in great numbers. In an 
account of the American Colonies, published at Dub- 
lin in 1753, and written by a clergyman of the English 
Church, we find the following: "The produce of 
this Colony [Rhode Island] is principally butter and 
cheese, fat cattle, wool, and fine horses, that are ex- 
ported to all parts of the English Americas. They 
are remarkable for fleetness and swift pacing; and 
I have seen some of them pace a mile in little more 
than two minutes, a good deal less than three." 
This last statement is doubtless exaggerated, but not 
more so than is to be expected even from a clergyman 
writing about horses. 

Since the Narragansett pacers became extinct, we 
have had no family of horses in New England bred 
especially for riding, although the Morgans, of whom 
I have spoken so often in the course of this book, are 
excellent for that purpose. The trot of the best and 
lightest Morgan families is peculiarly fit for the 
saddle, being short, smooth, and, above all, extremely 
elastic. 



SADDLE HORSES. 159 

This quality of springiness or elasticity is almost, 
if not quite, the most important one that a saddle 
horse can possess. Certainly as regards road riding, 
an elastic trot, whether long or short, is the best gait 
for pleasure or for exercise, or for accomplishing a 
distance, No attention whatever has been paid dur- 
ing the past fifty years to the production of a Mor- 
gan saddle horse, but the breed still contains the 
material for a quick-stepping, tough, and showy ani- 
mal very well adapted for city and suburban use, — 
what is called in England a " hack." Riding in the 
rural districts of New England — and this is true in 
almost equal degree of the Middle, and perhaps also 
of the Northwestern States — is nearly a lost art. 
There are whole townships where it would be hard to 
find a saddle, unless it were some antiquated, moth- 
eaten contrivance, covered with cobwebs and stowed 
away in a hay -loft. 

The equine interests of New England, Boston ex- 
cepted, all centre in the trotter. But this was not so 
formerly. Wherever ten men of Anglo-Saxon blood 
are gathered together, there will be found two at least 
who love horses, and to whom trials of speed between 
horses soon become a necessity. The passion for 
trotters set in early in the present century, but before 
that horse racing was common in the Eastern States, 
as elsewhere ; and well-bred horses from Canada were 
often imported for riding and racing purposes. To 
this fact, indeed, is due much of the best roadster 
blood in New England. The Drew family thus arose, 
and some of the swiftest, handsomest branches of the 
Morgan family derive, on the maternal side, from 
well bred mares of English stock brought from Canada 
and the Provinces. 



160 EOAD, TRACK, AND STABLE 



The sport was to be sure severely condemned by all 
serious people, and no church-member could attend a 
horse race with impunity. Nevertheless horse racing 
sometimes claimed its victims among the very elect. 
There is a true story on this head recorded of one 
Deacon E-., of Bennington, Vermont. The Deacon 
liked a good horse, and always had in his barn two 
or three animals that answered this description. In 
particular, about the year 1818, he owned one that 
was known to be a very fast runner; and so, when 
some wicked sporting men from New York came up 
to Bennington with a race horse which they offered 
to match against anything that could be produced in 
the town, the wicked Bennington boys bethought 
themselves of the Deacon's horse. A match was 
made, to be run off secretly, in the dead of night, and 
one Martin Scott (who afterward became a gallant 
officer in the United States Army) was selected to 
borrow and ride Deacon R.'s runner. Accordingly, 
Martin Scott burglariously entered the stable at mid- 
night, muffled the animal's feet, and quietly brought 
him out and rode him to the track. 

The race was over a mile course, and all went well 
till the home stretch was reached ; then the Benning- 
ton horse fell back, and it looked as if the strangers 
would win. But at that moment the Deacon him- 
self, or his ghost, rose up behind the fence, and 
screamed aloud, " Put the whip to him, Martin ; put 
the whip to him, I tell you.'* Martin, though seized 
with a great fear, retained sufficient presence of mind 
to follow these providential directions. He put the 
whip to his mount vigorously, and won the race by a 
head. Thereupon Deacon R. appeared on the track, 



SADDLE HORSES. 161 

waving his hat and shouting with triumph ; but pres- 
ently, recollecting himself and his deaconship, he 
went up to the successful jockey and exclaimed, with 
every indication of anger, " Martin Scott, you young 
reprobate, you have stolen my horse, and if you do 
not immediately return him to the stable, and give 
him a good rubbing down I shall report you to your 
father." And thus the Deacon won a horse race, and 
still preserved his standing in the Church. Never- 
theless, although riding steadily declined from this 
time on, New England furnished some excellent cav- 
alry in the Civil War, mounted chiefly on Morgan 
horses which out-travelled and outlasted the larger 
but less enduring animals ridden by the cavalry regi- 
ments of the West. 

The Narragansett pacer being extinct, and the Mor- 
gan trotter undeveloped as a saddler, the only riding 
horse born and bred in the United States is now to 
be found in Kentucky. Kentucky, from the very 
beginning of her history, has been noted for well-bred 
horses, especially in the " Blue Grass " district. A 
scientific person of reputation who made a study of 
that region tells us that there are certain products of 
the land which indicate infallibly the geological forma- 
tion. Whenever, he relates, he met a tall, handsome 
girl, with a good color in her cheeks, he knew that 
he had struck the Blue Grass belt, with its lime- 
impregnated soil, and there was no need to pound 
the rocks with his hammer, or curiously to inspect 
the earth. The girl was sufficient evidence of lati- 
tude and longitude ; and with her went rolling fields 
of rich pasture, substantial barns, and paddocks full 
of high-born colts and brood mares. The State was 

11 



162 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

settled in 1775, and so early as the year 1802 a 
Frenchman named Michaux, travelling in this coun- 
try on a behest from his government, reported of 
Kentucky that " almost all the inhabitants employ 
themselves in training and meliorating the breed of 
horses." And he describes these horses as being 
'' elegantly formed, having slim legs and well-propor- 
tioned heads." 

Another old traveller, writing in the year 1818, 
declares : " The horse, ' noble and generous,' is the 
favorite animal of the Kentuckian, by whom he is 
pampered with unceasing attention. Every person 
of wealth has from ten to thirty of good size and 
condition, upon which he lavishes his corn with a 
wasteful profusion." 

Within the past few months a society has been 
organized and a stud-book established in the interest 
of the Kentucky saddle horse, a dozen stallions being 
named as foundation horses.-^ About half of these 
stallions were thoroughbred, the other half being pa- 
cers of mixed breeding; and this fact indicates the 
origin of the Kentucky saddler, namely, that he is a 
cross between the pacer and the thoroughbred. Most 
of these Kentucky pacers were of Canadian stock, 
and they are described as " a hardy, substantial race." 
It was from this same stock that old pacing Pilot, 
whose son Pilot Jr. has attained reputation as a pro- 
genitor of trotters, was descended. There is a close 

1 Their names are here put down: — Denmark, by imported 
Hedgeford ; Brinker's Drennan, by Davy Crockett ; Sam Booker, 
by Boyd McNary ; ,Tohn Dillard, by Indian Chief; Tom Hal; 
Coleman's Eureka ; John Waxey, by Vanmeter's Waxey , Cabell's 
Lexington, by Blood's Black Hawk ; Copperbottom ; Stump the 
Dealer ; Texas, by Comanche ; and Prince Albert, by Frank 
Wolford 



SADDLE HORSES. 163 

relationship in some cases between Kentucky trotters 
and saddlers. Thus the thoroughbred John Dillard 
has sired the dams of many trotters ; and not a few- 
trace to Denmark. Denmark, also a thoroughbred, 
was a black horse of great style and substance, and 
his descendants, as a rule, take after him in a marked 
degree. Denmark founded the chief saddle strain 
in Kentucky. Tom Hal, the saddle stallion, is of 
the same family as Tom Hal, Brown Hal, and Hal 
Pointer,^ pacers of celebrity on the track. 

The old-time Kentucky pacer afforded the chief 
means of locomotion in that State, the highways being 
scarcely fit for wheeled vehicles. Only a few years 
ago, it was proposed to build a good turnpike from a 
certain " back '^ county to the nearest railroad ; and 
a provident farmer of the old school was called upon 
to assist the project with a contribution. But he re- 
fused. The intention was to build a " twelve-foot " 
pike ; and the farmer rebelled at such extravagance. 
A three-foot track was wide enough, he declared, for 
his horse, and anything more was superfluous. " The 
old saddler," writes a modern Kentuckian, " shuffled 
along the path where it was level, and went a half 
trot over the hills. He suited the country folk well 
in that day, but would be out of place now." The 
word " shuffling " aptly describes the pace, which is 
an awkward, inelegant gait. It was the same in the 
old Kentucky pacers that it is in the modern pacer of 
the race course, but when the Kentucky half-bred sad- 
dler came into being this ugly gait was supplemented 
by one smoother and more graceful. 

1 Since this chapter was put in type, Hal Pointer has paced a 
mile in 2.05i. 



164 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

The modern Kentucky saddle horses are taught the 
following gaits : — (1.) The flat-footed walk, or ordi- 
nary walk. (2.) The running walk. (3.) The amble. 
(4.) The rack or single foot. (5.) The trot. (6.) The 
canter. (7.) The gallop. 

The running walk is simply the ordinary walk ac- 
celerated. An ambitious colt ridden toward home, 
kept back from a faster gait, but urged to walk more 
speedily, will gradually fall into it. The action is 
more springy and pronounced than that of the ordi- 
nary walk, but mechanically it is the same. The 
sensation it transmits to the saddle is a very slight 
up and down motion. A Kentucky horse will run- 
ning-walk at the rate of five or five and a half miles 
an hour, and keep it up all day without fatigue to 
himself or to the rider. 

The amble is a slow pace, both near feet leaving 
the ground and returning to it simultaneously, fol- 
lowed by both off feet also moving together. The 
amble is a gait of about four and a half miles per 
hour, and it communicates to the saddle a slight 
rocking motion. 

In the rack or single foot the feet follow each other 
at equal intervals (or half-intervals), there being twice 
as many hoof-beats as there would be at a trot or pace 
of the same speed. In other words, the two near feet 
do not strike the ground together, as in a pace, but at 
regular intervals. The sound of the footfalls is one, 
two, three, four, instead of one, two, as it would be in 
the same period of time at a pace. This is the smooth- 
est of all gaits. " You are sitting in an arm-chair," 
remarks Colonel T. A. Dodge, to whom I am indebted 
for these particulars, " at a speed of from seven to fif- 



SADDLE HORSES. 165 

teen miles an hour." And he adds : " I once owned a 
racker who could do a full mile in three minutes un- 
der the saddle, and you could carry a tumbler full of 
water in your hand without spilling a drop of it." 

The trot requires no description. In this gait the 
off fore foot and the near hind foot strike and leave 
the ground exactly together, followed by the near 
fore and off hind foot. 

The canter is not considered perfect in a Kentucky 
horse until he can perform it at a rate no faster than 
a fast walk. To '' canter all day in the shade of an 
apple tree," is a well known saying. On this head 
an old trainer informs me, "I have taught horses 
to canter around a pole which I held in my hand 
with one end planted in the ground." A well-broken 
Kentucky horse will of course change lead in the 
canter, and start with either foot leading, at the will 
of the rider. 

The gallop is an inartificial gait, and belongs rather 
to hunters and to polo ponies than to the saddle horse 
proper. " It may be used occasionally," states a high 
school enthusiast, " but no one goes galloping along 
the road except a Sunday rider." 

Of course it is no advantage to have a horse with 
all these gaits unless the rider is skilful enough to 
keep them separate. If the man is less instructed 
than the horse, a sad confusion of paces is apt to 
obtain. On the whole, a well-bitted, well-suppled 
horse, with a good trot and a good canter, w^ould be 
more useful to the ordinary rider than would one of 
these highly accomplished saddlers, i 

1 The readiness with which Kentuckians accommodate them- 
selves to the New York market may be gathered from the follow- 



166 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE, 



The Kentucky horses are handsome and docile, and 
they jump well. Some of them are up to a great 
weight. I have seen one in j^articular that weighed 
about twelve hundred pounds, a smoothly turned, 
round built horse, of proud and lofty carriage, fit to 
carry a commander-io-chief ; instructed in the move- 
ments of the haute ecole, and so thoroughly disciplined 
that his owner as he sat in the saddle was able to 
crack an enormous whip over the horse's head with- 
out causing him to budge an inch. I have another in 
my stable at this moment, a coal-black fellow, standing 
about 16.1, and weighing at least twelve hundred 
pounds, with a powerful, sloping shoulder, high 
withers, and a short back, capable of sustaining the 
heaviest rider. This horse has a long, curved neck, 
finely cut ears, powerful hind quarters, and a gentleness 
and intelligence that I have never seen surpassed. 

Another type of the Kentucky saddle horse is ex- 
hibited in a beautiful little bay mare, called Pea 
Vine, bred by Colonel T. A. Dodge. She is a tough, 

ing humorous remarks, which I quote from a newspaper published 
in the heart of the Bhie Grass region : — 

" A new kind of saddler has come into fashion of late, known as 
the Parker, or New York saddler. A class of business men in 
the East want something to jolt up their livers and give them a 
deal of exercise on a short road or in the parks. The gait can 
scarcely be described, and should be seen to be appreciated. It 
requires a high degree of intelligence in the horse to enable him 
to acquire it. He must cross his feet, take short, high steps, and 
come down hard ; he must go backward as well as forward, side- 
wise, and obliquely. He must cu^t up all sorts of didos. The 
combination of a business man who doesn't know anything about 
riding, a plug hat, and a trained 'Parker' would draw in any 
Kentucky town almost like a circus. But then Ave have them. 
Our horsemen can put up anything in their line that the trade 
demands." 



SADDLE HORSES. 167 

wiry, nervous creature, always dancing about on her 
small feet, and arching her thin neck, but jjerfectly 
tractable. Pea Vine, like the other two horses just 
mentioned, goes well in harness. 

We have one more breed, if not of saddle horses, at 
least of saddle ponies, namely, the broncos. The 
bronco, a rat of a horse, with ewe neck, a hammer 
head, a short hip, and an easy, loping gait, is sup- 
posed to have descended chiefly from Spanish horses 
brought to this continent in the seventeenth century. 
Privation and cold have reduced him in size, stripped 
him of all purely ornamental parts and qualities, 
and developed his capacity for endurance. 

"The toughness and strength of the bronco," writes 
Colonel T. A. Dodge in an interesting paper,^ " can 
scarcely be exaggerated. He will live through a win- 
ter that will kill the hardiest cattle. He worries 
through the long months when the snow has covered 
up the bunch grass, on a diet of cottonwood boughs, 
which the Indian cuts down for him ; and in the 
spring it takes but a few weeks for him to scour out 
into splendid condition." 

Another writer. Colonel E. I. Dodge, relates that a 
pony carried the mail three hundred miles in three 
consecutive nights, and back over the same road the 
next week, and kept this up for six months without 
loss of condition. 

" The absence of crest in the pony," Colonel T. A. 
Dodge continues, "suggests the curious query what 
has become of the proud, arching neck of liis ancestor, 
the Barb. There are two ways of accounting for this. 
The Indian's gag-bit, invariably applied with a jerk, 

1 Harper's Magazine for May, 1891. 



168 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

throws up the pony's head, instead of bringing it 
down, as the slow and light application of the school 
curb will do, and this tends to develop the ewe neck. 
Or a more sufficient reason may be found in the fact 
that the starvation which the pony annually under- 
goes in the winter months tends to deplete him of 
every superfluous ounce of flesh. The crest in the 
horse is mostly meat, and its annual depletion has 
finally brought down the pony's neck nearer to the 
outline of the skeleton." The latter is doubtless the 
true explanation. 

It is astonishing what effect cold and privation 
have in stunting the growth of horses, and, conversely, 
how quickly warm housing and abundant food will in- 
crease the size of a small breed. Some interesting 
experiments of this nature have recently been tried 
with broncos. It was found that colts by a thorough- 
bred sire and out of a bronco dam grew no bigger than 
the ordinary bronco when they were subjected to a 
like degree of exposure and of comparative starvation ; 
whereas colts bred in the same way, but housed and 
fed in the winter season, grew very much larger. It 
is a question, however, whether these more delicately 
nurtured horses will prove as strong and tough as 
the others. 

It is difficult to say what is the relative speed of the 
bronco. Like any ponj^, he gets into his stride so 
quickly that he might for a short distance, as a quar- 
ter of a mile, beat a larger horse, even a thoroughbred. 
But for a mile or more the thoroughbred would be the 
faster, and when it comes to longer distances, the re- 
sult would probably be the same. Still, there is some 
evidence to show that it would take more than au 



SADDLE HORSES. 169 

average thoroughbred to beat a good bronco for ten or 
twenty miles. Many years ago, an army officer on 
the plains offered to match his charger, a Kentucky 
thoroughbred, with the swiftest pony owned by a cer- 
tain Comanche tribe. The Comanches, it should be 
added, are the best horsemen of their race, being the 
only Indians who show any fondness, or even merc}', 
for their steeds, or any skill in breeding them. Their 
favorite color is the piebald. The chief accepted the 
offer on one condition, namely, that the race should 
be for a distance of not less than fourteen miles. 
This match never came off, but the terms made by 
the chief are significant of his opinion as to wherein 
lay the superiority of the bronco. 

In another case the trial was actually made. Some 
Kickapoo Indians, who, like almost all red men, are 
desperate gamblers, bought a race horse of a white 
man in Missouri, and took him out on the plains, a 
journey of many hundred miles, for the purpose of 
matching him against a certain Comanche pony. 
They used great care with the horse, carrying with 
them the grain and hay to which he was accustomed, 
and they were perfectly confident of success. In fact, 
they proposed to bet everything that they owned on 
the result. Each man wore his entire wardrobe on his 
back, — an Indian, like Lever's Irishman, puts on all 
his finery at once, — and they converted the rest of 
their property into a drove of ordinary horses, which 
they took along to wager with the Comanches. But 
the Comanche pony won, and the Kickapoo Indians 
returned on foot, and nearly naked. 

In many parts of the West, broncos are driven as 
well as ridden, and a pair of them harnessed to a light 



170 • ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

carriage make an excellent team for long journeys. 
In the early days of California, the fast stage-coaches, 
famous for tearing down mountain roads and skirting 
the edges of a precipice, were horsed chiefly, if not en- 
tirely, by broncos. But the endurance of this animal 
as a roadster has been exaggerated. The truth is that 
broncos are ridden and driven great distances in a day, 
not so much because they can accomplish the task 
with impunity, as because they are cheap, and their 
owners are cruel. If a bronco is ruined by a long 
drive, it is easy to replace him. 

Broncos are commonly intelligent, but they are also 
apt to be vicious. In fact, the breaking which they 
undergo, and which has been practised upon many 
generations of their ancestors, could hardly fail to 
leave them otherwise than vicious. '' Buffalo Bill " 
has made the buck-jumping of a bronco familiar to 
the people of two continents. Nor is it easy to make 
them go safely in harness. A neighbor of mine once 
hitched to a light road-cart a pony that had been rid- 
den for some years. He took many precautions in 
the way of straps and ropes, so that kicking was ren- 
dered impossible. Finally, when all was ready, he 
mounted the cart and drove quietly out of the yard. 
I watched him as far down the road as I could see, 
and no old horse could have gone more steadily or 
better than this bronco. But, as it soon appeared, 
he was only biding his opportunity. When he came 
to a bridge over a river, which he had often crossed 
before, the pony without the least warning, jumped 
the rail, taking man and cart along with him, and 
dropped the whole establishment in the flood. It was 
in the spring, and ice was running, but with some 



SADDLE HORSES. 171 

difficulty the horse, as well as the man, was rescued ; 
and this was his last as well as his first api^earance in 
harness. 

The best polo ponies bred in America are broncos 
crossed with thoroughbred stallions, and they are 
raised chiefly in Texas. I am aware that some horse- 
men believe the pure bronco, in his best form, to be 
equal in capacity, and even in " quality," to these 
half-bred ponies, — a fact whicli* they explain by his 
descent from Spanish horses or Barbs. So far as 
speed is concerned, this may be true. Pale-Face, an 
unmitigated bronco from Wyoming, won a race at 
Boston in 1891 ; but I doubt the existence of bron- 
cos having the quality and docility of the bronco- 
thoroughbred. 

Some of the most charming pieces of horseflesh 
that I have ever known were half-bred polo ponies. 
Schoolmaster,^ winner of all the prizes for which he 
was eligible at the Boston Horse Show of 1890, is an 
example. Schoolmaster, a medium-sized brown pony 
with a plain but good head and an intelligent eye, 
has the strength of a little cart horse and the speed of 
a deer. He weighs seven hundred and fifty pounds. 
His legs and feet are perfect ; cannon bones short ; 
hind quarters well let down ; and, above all, he satis- 
fies the supreme test that used to be applied by a 
famous judge of race horses in England, for " he 
stands pretty P Schoolmaster is "up" to a weight of 
two hundred pounds, and has carried it for several 
seasons without sustaining puff or splint. There are 
few ponies, however, of which so much can be said. 
Their short, strong backs, and great courage enable 

1 The property of S. D. Warren, Esquire. 



172 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

them to carry heavy men, but the work injures them. 
Splints and strained cords, especially, of course, in the 
fore-legs, tell the tale at the end of a season. 

A good part of Schoolmaster's power — and in a 
less degree this is true of polo ponies generally — lies 
in the muscles of his back. These are so powerful, 
that when he shies, or even meditates doing so, the 
rider feels as if there were a group of radiating steel 
springs beneath the saddle, which, if their full power 
were expended, might shoot him off into space. 
Schoolmaster, however, is a very tractable animal ; he 
has been known to run away out of high spirits, but 
by a good rider he is easily controlled with a snaffle, 
or even with a straight bit. In fact, the tempers and 
dispositions of these half-bred polo ponies are almost 
invariably good. They are high-strung, nervous, and 
extremely sensitive, requiring very gentle treatment. 
I have known one that would tremble if a horse 
sneezed in the box next to her. Indeed, so far as 
mental qualities go, the thoroughbred element seems 
completely to predominate in their composition. But 
they are not so tough as might be expected, being 
poor eaters of hay, and rather sensitive to cold. I 
have sometimes thought that their manner of life at 
the East does not suit them. In their colthood, at 
the West, they live outdoors the year round, wear 
no blankets, and get little if any grain. It may be 
that the change, often a sudden one, to the housing, 
blanketing, and high feeding which they receive here, 
tends to impair their stoutness. 

Broken to harness, these American polo ponies go 
well and steadily, and their short, easy trot, closely 
resembling that of the Morgan horse, carries them 



SADDLE HORSES. ITo 

over the ground at a rate which few larger horses 
can equal for a long distance. As a rule, they are 
not, of course, fast trotters, but I know of one, a 
half-bred roan pony, with a beautiful blood-like head 
and sloping rump, that has the big, wide gait of a 
true trotter. This pony, I have no doubt, could trot a 
mile in three minutes or better, and he is also a fast 
runner and a good jumper. Occasionally, one finds 
among these half-bred ponies one with a longer back, 
lower-carried head, and longer neck than are common, 
looking exactly like a diminutive race horse. I have 
ridden one such, a chestnut mare, extremely nervous, 
thin-waisted, long and low, a sort of toy thorough- 
bred, highly intelligent and capable of being tamed 
and taught like a pet dog. But this pony is nearly 
clean bred. 

A writer in the recent Badminton volume on Hid- 
ing states that in selecting a polo pony the object 
should be to get one resembling as closely as possible 
a race horse in petto. It is dangerous to differ in 
any degree from so high an authority, but I should 
have thought that the ideal polo pon}^, though in 
other respects resembling a thoroughbred race horse, 
is shorter in the back. Certainly the work is so dif- 
ferent that some difference in construction miirht be 
presumed to exist. The polo pony must be a weight- 
carrier. It is notable, also, tliat the portraits of su- 
perior polo ponies given in the Badminton volume 
represent, most commonly, short-backed animals ; and, 
finally, such is the shape of the Arab and of the Barb, 
— both of which breeds furnish excellent polo ponies. 

The training of saddle horses is a matter with 
which I shall not attempt to deal, inasmuch as it has 



174 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

recently been treated by more than one good writer 
and thorough horseman.^ American horses are as a 
rule so intelligent and well disposed that they are 
easily taught to carry a man, though to educate any 
horse in the niceties of the art requires a master 
hand. The chief difficulty, especially if the animal 
be at all nervous, is to teach him to stand still while 
being mounted ; and this should be a long, cautious 
process. Mount him first in the stable, with the 
groom holding him by the head. After a time, let 
him stand free while you mount ; and, later on, let 
the man hold him outside, near the stable and facing 
it, while you get on. And so by degrees accustom 
him to be mounted in the open. 

It is a great mistake to try experiments in this 
or in any other matter with a green horse. I re- 
member that many years ago, riding a young un- 
trained horse alone at night, it occurred to me that, if 
I got off, it might be difficult to get on again. From 
this obvious reflection, it was but a step, in my own 
mind, to a well-grounded suspicion that I was afraid 
to try. And this being settled, — in that awful forum 
which we all carry about within us, — it appeared 
absolutely necessary that I should dismount then and 
there ; and so off I jumped. Getting back was, as 
I anticipated, no easy task, but after much backing, 
shifting, and circling about the road on the part of 
the horse, I put foot in stirrup and was in the act of 
throwing my right leg over the saddle. Just then, 

1 The reader is referred to the Badminton volume on Riding 
and Polo ; to " Patroclus and Penelope," bv Colonel T. A. Dodge ; 
to " Modern Horsemanship," by E. L. Anderson ; and to " Horse- 
manship for Women," by T. H. Mead. 



SADDLE HORSES. 175 

however, most inconveniently, the beast started on 
a dead run, and I found myself clinging to his neck. 
This was bad, but worse followed, for the animal 
kicked up behind, and shot me off so that I turned 
a somersault, and fell on my back in the highway. 
However, I pulled myself together, walked homeward 
a mile, the horse having preceded me, found him 
grazing, and, leading him up to a convenient hen 
house, got on, to my surprise, very easily. That 
same night I mounted the same horse again, first in 
the stable, then in the yard, and finally, with some 
difficulty, in the street ; but for months, if not for 
years afterward, he was apt to resist my ascent to 
the saddle. 

This misadventure taught me two lessons, both of 
which I commend to the youthful reader. The first 
is, that, in mounting a horse disposed to be fractious 
or restive, the main thing is to have a good hold on 
the reins, and to be prepared to keep him in check 
if he shows any disposition to bolt. I do not mean 
by this that you should hang on to the bit and 
drag yourself into the saddle by means of the reins. 
Nothing could irritate the horse more than that, or 
tend more to spoil his mouth. But you should have 
a short, firm hold of, the reins, and be ready, men- 
tally, to pull him up if he should start. In mount- 
ing such horses, it is important to move quickly 
and quietly ; any delay or clumsiness, or irresolution, 
might easily convince the horse that you were his 
inferior at the game. 

The second and more general lesson, already indi- 
cated, that I learned from my nocturnal experience 
is the folly of forcing matters with young horses. 



176 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

or of attempting feats out of mere bravado, though 
one's self be the only spectator. The true rule is 
neither to go out of your way to meet danger, nor 
to decline the opportunity when it comes. Anybody 
who is much in the saddle will sooner or later find 
an occasion to test his mettle ; and if one have the 
happiness to play polo, or, more especially, to ride 
to hounds, such occasions will be frequent. Of all 
the manly arts, horsemanship is the one where mere 
strength and size count the least, and skill and cour- 
age the most. 

A small, weak man with " hands " can manage a 
beast which a big, strong man without them cannot 
keep from running away. On the other hand, muscle 
and endurance have full scope in the saddle. Asshe- 
ton Smith used to tumble his hunters over fences too 
high to be jumped ; for nearly fifty years he averaged 
about fifty falls a season, and yet he never received 
more than one serious injury. Assheton Smith was 
a born fox-hunter ; but other men, handicapped by 
nature, have shown their prowess in the saddle. To 
think of Anthony Trollope, riding " straight, " though 
old and half blind, and sounding, as he humorously 
said, the depths of every ditch in Essex, — to re- 
member such achievements is to raise one's standard 
of human courage and pertinacity. 

The late R. H. Dana used to say that every man 
ought at least once in his life to face death. For the 
modern man, sport must commonly supply, if not 
a proximity to death, at least a certain hardness of 
experience which in former ages war, or travel, or 
tournaments, or duels afforded. There is a keen joy 
which civilization seems to whet, rather than to 



SADDLE HORSES. 



177 



deaden, in physical exertion, even in physical fatigue, 
still more in the agony of a contest. It is good and 
pleasant to put on the gloves and face an antagonist 
some ten pounds heavier than yourself, who would 
not hesitate to send in a stinging straight counter on 
the nose, if you gave him the opportunity ; the sensa- 
tion of being thrown absolutely on your own resources 
under these circumstances is exhilarating and whole- 
some; it is good, also, to handle a shell in rough 
water, with the consciousness that the least mistake 
or flurry on your part would serve to capsize or 
swamp your frail craft ; and good is it — nay, 
best of all — to bestride a young and fiery horse, 
whose safety as a vehicle depends upon your power 
to grip him with leg and knee, and to guide and 
restrain him with a firm, light hand. 





YII. 



CAEEIAGE HORSES AND COBS. 



A SCIENTIFIC person once declared — and Mr. 
Ruskin scornfully rebuked him for the asser- 
tion — that the amount of coal consumed in any given 
country will measure the degree of civilization to 
which it has attained. The same remark has been 
made in regard to sulphuric acid, and doubtless it 
could be applied to many other commodities with 
that mixture of truth which is sufficient for an epi- 
gram. Of carriage horses, for example, it might be 
said that their quality (if not their quantity) is an 
index of civilization ; for the carriage horse changes 
his character from century to century, almost from 
year to year, as wealth and skill augment, as high- 
ways improve, as vehicles become lighter, as railroads 
are brought into play, as people use their steeds for 



CARRIAGE HORSES AND COBS, 179 

pleasure and for show rather than for long and ne- 
cessary journeys. When Horace Walpole paid an 
electioneering visit to the country in 1761, after an 
absence of fifteen years or so, he found that a great 
improvement had taken place, and he explained it 
as follows : — 

••To do the folks justice, they are sensible and rea- 
sonable and civilized ; their very language is polished 
since I lived among them. I attribute this to their 
more frequent intercourse with the world and the 
capital by the help of good roads and post chaises, 
which, if they have abridged the King's dominions, 
have at least tamed his subjects." 

The primitive carriage horse was a pony, unac- 
quainted with grooming, ignorant even of the taste of 
oats ; and the vehicle that he drew required no roads, 
a path through the forest sufficing for its progress. 
And yet, oddly enougli, this ancient vehicle is still em- 
ployed in this country. Within a few months of the 
present writing, I have seen it conveying a squaw and 
a papoose around the circus ring; and the red men 
have constructed it in that identical form for centu- 
ries, and still use it in some of the Western reserva- 
tions. This woodland carriage is made, as doubtless 
the reader knows, by taking a couple of long poles, 
and affixinsr them to the horse's neck in such a man- 
ner that they drag on the ground behind his heels, 
the load being fastened on the end of the poles. 

Xext to these tepee poles, as the Indians call them, 
or trainaux in the French Canadian tongue, came, in 
this country, the sledge of the Appalachians. There 
are old men still living in the mountains of Kentucky 
and of Tennessee who have never even seen a wheeled 



180 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

vehicle. They use, all the year round, a sledge made 
of bent saplings fastened with wooden pins and raw- 
hide thongs. 

The invention of the solid disk-wheel was a stroke 
of genius which should have immortalized the name 
of its author, and yet history -records neither that 
nor his nationality. It is certain, however, that he 
lived thousands of years before the Christian era. 
The disk-wheel being in use, ingenious men gradu- 
ally punched holes in it to reduce the weight, until at 
last they arrived at the modern spoked wheel. Cen- 
turies more elapsed before anything that can be dig- 
nified with the name of carriage was built. It was 
about the beginning of the thirteenth century that 
carriages were first used by the nobility in England ; 
and the roads were so bad and the vehicles so heavy 
that they were of little service until toward the end 
of the sixteenth century. A contemporary account 
of the city of London, written in 1550, speaks of the 
streets as being even then "very foul, full of pits 
and sloughs, very perilous and noxious." Fifty years 
later, coaches had become so numerous that a bill was 
introduced m Parliament to restrain their use, one 
argument in its favor being that the watermen were 
losing custom because people travelled by the road 
instead of by river. This bill was rejected, but in 
1660 Parliament reduced the number of coaches in 
London from two thousand to four hundred. About 
the same time, the present custom of driving for 
pleasure and for show in Hyde Park was established. 

But until the end of the seventeenth century 
coaches and chariots must have afforded very rough 
riding ; for springs were not invented till about 1665, 



CARRIAGE HORSES AND COBS. 181 

and in their first form they appear to liave mitigated 
but slightly the jolting of the vehicle to which they 
were applied. Pepys speaks of riding in a carriage 
thus equipped belonging to Colonel Edward Blount, 
which Pepys found " pretty well, but not so easy as 
he pretends." 

How far from easy the seventeenth century car- 
riages must have been is shown by the numerous 
crude inventions that were made from time to time 
with the view of improving them. Evelyn, for exam- 
ple, in the year 1665, records the following in his 
Diary : — 

" Sir Eichard Bulkeley described to us a model of 
a chariot which he had contrived, which it was not 
possible to overthrow in whatever uneven way it was 
drawn, giving us a wonderful relation of what it had 
performed in that kind, for ease, expedition, and 
safety ; there were some inconveniences yet to be 
remedied : it would not contain more than one per- 
son, was ready to take fire every ten miles, and, being 
placed and playing on no fewer than ten rollers, it 
made a most prodigious noise*, almost intolerable. A 
remedy was to be sought for these inconveniences." 

If this astonishing vehicle was really considered 
wonderful for "ease and expedition," — and Mr. 
Evehm was not given to irony, — it may be imagined 
what were the qualities of the ordinary chariot, upon 
which it was supposed to be an improvement. 

But whatever the ancient carriage lacked in com- 
fort, it made up in splendor. It was richly deco- 
rated, painted in gay colors, emblazoned with pictures, 
and fitted with hangings and cushions of silk and 
velvet. 



182 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

On May-day, in particular, it was tlie custom for 
everybody who owned a coach to go abroad in it with 
such display as his means and taste would permit. 
The first time when Pepys took part in this fashion- 
able amusement was in the year 1669. Shortly be- 
fore, he had purchased a line coach, and had it painted 
in yellow and silver, and he had also paid a visit to 
the horse-market at Smithfield of which he Avrote, — 
and there is nothing archaic in the remark, — " Here 
do I see instances of a |)iece of craft and cunning that 
I never dreamed of concerning the buying and choos- 
ing of horses." 

Pepys had defended himself against the wiles of 
the jockeys by taking along one Mr. Ned Pickering, 
a gentleman whose counterpart might easily be found 
at the present day. Mr. Pickering, younger son of 
Sir Gilbert Pickering, was bred to the law, but seems 
never to have followed that or any other profession, 
having picked up a living in d.evious ways. Roger 
North speaks of him as "a subtle fellow," — the very 
description of a successful Jock. And this subtlety 
appears to have grown upon Mr. Pickering Avith years, 
— perhaps by reason of too frequent visits to Smith- 
field, — for toward the close of his life he tampered 
with a will made by Sir John Cutts, and, being 
detected, narrowly escaped imprisonment for the 
offence. 

By advice of this connoisseur, Pepys bought a pair 
of fine black horses at a cost of £50, and the bargain 
seems to have been a good one, for the Diary there- 
after records nothing but satisfaction with the steeds, 
and in due course Pepys made Mr. Pickering a slight 
present in recognition of his services. 



CARRIAGE HORSES AND COBS. 183 

The new coach-owner thus describes his first May- 
day parade: "And so anon we went along through 
the town, with our new liveries of serge, and the 
horses' manes and tails tied with red ribbons, and the 
standards gilt with varnish, and all clean, and green 
reines, that people did mightily look upon us; and 
the truth is I did not see any coach more pretty, 
though more gay than ours, all the day.'' But this 
was not his first appearance in Hyde Park in his own 
coach. That occurred a few weeks before, and Pepys 
has described it thus: "Thence to Hyde Park, the 
first time we were there this year, or ever in our own 
coach, where, with mighty pride, rode up and down, 
and many coaches there ; and I thought our horses 
and coach as pretty as any there, and observed so 
to be by others." 

Later still, toward the middle of the eighteenth 
century, began that very great and rapid improve- 
ment — noted, as we have seen, by Horace Walpole — 
in highways, vehicles, and horses, which increased 
the rate of travel from four or five to twelve miles 
an hour, and culminated with the introduction of 
railways. 

The carriage horse, it need scarcely be said, became 
lighter and more active according as the weight that 
he had to draw, and more especially the friction of 
the roadways, diminished. Originally he was simply 
a beast of burden, the first English carriage horse 
being of the old black cart or shire horse strain, a 
huge, ungainly animal, with a big head and shaggy 
fetlocks. Contemporary with the cart horse coachers 
were the "running footmen," with their wands of 
office. The chariots which they attended progressed 



184 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

SO slowly that these functionaries could easily go 
ahead, when necessary, and engage apartments and 
refreshments at the next inn where a stop was to be 
made. They were also extremely useful in putting 
their shoulders to the wheel, when, as often hap- 
pened, the vehicle stuck in a rut or in some " peril- 
ous slough." Later, in the seventeeth century, many 
Flemish mares were imported to England for carriage 
horses. They had more style and quality, but lacked 
endurance, as Gervase Markham pointed out in his 
well known work. The cream-colored coach horses, 
which are still bred in the Queen's stables, though 
they have seldom been used since the death of Prince 
Albert, are descended from the same strain. In 
France, the Norman breed furnished the carriage 
horses of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, 
and one writer speaks of the ''ricWy mottled grays" 
that drew the coach of Richelieu. 

It is an apt illustration of the conservatism which 
prevails in, or perhaps more correctly is an essential 
part of, forms and ceremonies, that the state carriage 
horse of England has always been a century or so 
behind the tunes. Shire horses were used to draw 
Queen Anne's coach, though they had been given up 
by private persons for many years before she came to 
the throne ; and in the same way, during the present 
reign, the Hanoverian horse has held a place in the 
royal stables to which he is entitled only on the 
score of antiquity. Another similar example was to 
be found, until lately, in the steeds that horsed the 
chariots of the Koman cardinals. These too were of 
Flemish origin, " of great size, as fat as prize oxen, 
proud and prancing at starting, — all action and 
no sfo." 



CARRIAGE HORSES AND COBS. 185 

As tlie Flemish mare succeeded the shire horse, 
so the Cleveland bay succeeded and vastly improved 
upon the Flemish importation. Cleveland bays are 
still bred, constituting with their cousins, the York- 
shire coach horses, and with the stout fast-stepping 
hackneys, the three strains of harness horse now 
to be found in England. I shall have a word to say 
about them all. 

The Cleveland bays originated, as the name imports, 
in Cleveland, a district of the East Kiding of York- 
shire, and they date from about the middle of the 
eighteenth century. Remotely, they sprang from a 
cross between the native black cart horse, already 
mentioned, and the thoroughbred; but the type be- 
came a hxed one, and is thus described by Frank 
Forester : — 

"The Cleveland bay, in its natural and unmixed 
form, is a tall, powerfully built, bony animal, aver- 
aging, I should say, 15 hands 3 inches in height, rarely 
falling short of 15-^-, or exceeding 16J hands. The 
crest and withers are almost invariably good; the 
head bony, lean, and well set on. Ewe necks are 
probably rarer in this family than in any other, unless 
it be the dray horse, in which it is never seen. The 
faults of shape to which the Cleveland bay is most 
liable are narrowness of chest, undue length of body, 
and thinness of the cannon and shank bones. Their 
color is invariably bay, rather on the yellow bay than 
on the blood bay color, with black manes, tails, and 
legs. They are sound, active, powerful horses, with 
excellent capabilities for draught, and good endurance 
so long as they are not pushed beyond their speed, 
which may be estimated at from six to eight miles an 



186 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

hour on a trot, or from ten to twelve — the latter 
quite the maximum — on a gallop, under almost any 
weight/' 

But the Cleveland bay did not long continue in his 
original form ; there were more and greater infusions 
of thoroughbred blood, so that he became ''liner," 
more speedy, a little longer of limb, and in all re- 
spects a superior animal for the coach and the saddle. 
The country gentlemen were great breeders and users 
of Cleveland bays. " A squire," it is said, " of two or 
three thousand a year, in the midland or northern 
counties, did not consider his stable furnished with- 
out five or six full-sized, well-bred coach horses " ; 
and if he went a journey of fifty or seventy-five 
miles, he would be conveyed not only in his own 
carriage, but by his own steeds. Noblemen counted 
their carriage horses by the score ; for in those 
days they travelled in some state. Six-in-hand for 
gala or ceremonious occasions, and four for every-day 
purposes, were the usual number. But times have 
changed. "The old duke always journeyed to Lon- 
don with six post chaises and four, attended by out- 
riders. The present man comes up in a first-class 
carriage with half a dozen bagmen, and sneaks away 
from the station in a brougham, smoking a cigar." 
The reader will remember that even Sir Pitt Crawley, 
most penurious of men, was met by a coach and four 
at his park gates, where he and his companion Becky 
Sharp had been set down by the stage. 

County running races also contributed very largely, 
though indirectly, to the improvement of carriage 
horses. Local magnates liked to be represented at 
these races by horses of their own breeding, and con- 



CARRIAGE HORSES AND COBS. 187 

sequently there was a wide diffusion of thoroughbred 
sires. Under these influences, the improved or half- 
bred Cleveland bays lost their distinctive color in a 
large degree, chestnuts, iron-grays, roans, and dark 
browns becoming frequent among them. Still, there 
are in existence even at the present time many Cleve- 
land bays of the correct color, with legs black from 
the knee down, and with that "list," or strip of black, 
running from the withers to the root of the tail, which 
is considered to establish beyond a doubt the purity 
of their blood. A dark brown coat with a cinnamon 
muzzle was supposed to indicate a tough and hardy 
beast, and animals thus marked are seen occasionally 
nowadays. Blacks were the least common, this color 
being avoided, as suggestive of a cart horse origin, un- 
less it could be traced directly to a thoroughbred sire. 
Particular colors came to be associated with particular 
districts. Thus, in one neighborhood it would be the 
ambition of every carriage owner to have a gray Sir 
William or a brown Sir Peter, as the case might be ; 
whereas in another district a black this or a chestnut 
that would be considered an indispensable inmate of 
a gentleman's stable. 

The most potent influence in developing the car- 
riage horse was, however, that mania for fast trav- 
elling in coaches and post chaises which could be 
satisfied with nothing less than ten fyid even twelve 
miles an hour. Anybody who has actually driven ten 
or twenty miles at this rate in a light carriage — not 
simply heard or talked about it, which is a more com- 
mon occurrence — can imagine what a task it was for 
four horses to travel at such speed, while hauling a 
load of four tons or more. Nothing but a strong dash 



188 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

of thoroughbred blood, and hardly that, could supply 
the requisite wind and limb. 

One of the best of those colored plates that illus- 
trate the road in coaching days shows both what kind 
of horse was used, and what was the effect upon him 
of the work. It is a picture of " The Night Team " 
putting to in the frosty moonlight at a roadside inn, 
while a few passengers, muffled to the eyes, shiver 
on top of the stage. Three of the four horses, the 
wheelers and the off leader, are bays, — broken down, 
"but still powerful. The ribs clearly show through 
their short, nicely groomed coats ; their fine, well-bred 
heads, topped by small, aristocratic ears, hang mourn- 
fully down 5 their knees are fearfully sprung; their 
Mnd legs are twisted and swollen. Altogether, they 
give the impression of having accomplished some 
tremendous feats, and of being still able to perform 
the like when well warmed to their work. The 
fourth horse, the nigh leader, is a gray, young and 
sound, but vicious. He wears a broad bandage over 
his eyes, to prevent shying at "objects," and two or 
three hostlers are struggling to get him within the 
traces, while he plunges about with head and tail 
high in the air. The fast mail coaches broke down 
many good horses before their time ; and if anybody 
had upon his hands an unmanageable brute, such as 
the English sysjbem of breaking was eminently fitted 
to produce, he doubtless put him into one of those 
horse-taming and horse-killing machines. 

During the past fifty years many of the best Cleve- 
land bays have been exported, — so many that the 
deficiency in the London market has been supplied in 
part by carriage horses brought over from Germany. 



CARRIAGE HORSES AND COBS. 189 

Not long ago, an an English agricultural journal in- 
quired, with much feeling and with less attention to 
grammar, " When royalty or nobility wants a pair oi 
upstanding London carriage horses, where goes the 
thousand guineas that hardly fetches them?'^ "Not," 
answering its own question, "to the struggling Eng- 
lish occupier, but to the broad expanses of the Conti- 
nent." Even the great job-masters of London (two 
of whom supply no less than five hundred pairs of 
carriage horses each to their customers, not counting 
single brougham and victoria horses) had recourse at 
one time to the Flemish horses. They were cheap 
and good-looking, but so washy and soft, so deficient 
in bone and endurance, so defective in those very 
points which Gervase Markham condemned in them 
two hundred years before, that, after a few years^ 
trial, they were commonly given up by the job- 
masters. 

Closely allied to the Cleveland bays are the York- 
shire coach horses. Separate stud-books are main- 
tained in England for these families, although in 
many instances the same animal is recorded in both 
books, whereas in this country one compilation of 
pedigrees does service for both strains. The differ- 
ences between them are thus stated by Mr. Burdett- 
Coutts : — 

"The Cleveland bays, in what I may call their 
aboriginal form, are agricultural horses, with plenty 
of grand points in their frame, but with no elegance 
of 'turning,' and without any action, and therefore 
totally unfitted to produce from themselves alone the 
big carriage horse. The Yorkshire coach horses have 
both the qualities above referred to, but they, again, 



190 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

if kept to themselves, will in a very short time be- 
come high on the leg and light of bone, and con- 
sequently equally unfitted to draw the weight of a 
big barouche or a state coach." What is wanted, he 
goes on to say, is "the big harness horse, standing 
from 16 hands to 16.2 in height, with the bone and 
shortness of leg, the depth and grandeur of frame, 
which are in the Cleveland, and are not in the York- 
shire coach horse ; with the quality, elegance, and 
action which are in the Yorkshire coach horse, and 
not in the Cleveland ; and with the ' long, elegant 
top line,' which is only produced by a combination of 
both." 

Both the Cleveland bays and the Yorkshire coach 
horses are moderately high steppers, and usually 
incapable of a really fast trot. 

A third family of carriage horses is that of the 
hackneys, whose stud-book, like the others just men- 
tioned, is a very modern one, dating from 1882. Their 
origin is remotely the same as that of the Cleveland 
bays and the Yorkshire coach horses, — a mixture 
of thoroughbred and cart horse ; but in the hackney 
family there is an intermediate strain, namely, that 
of the old Norfolk trotter, a fast-trotting, plain, ser- 
viceable, moderate-sized beast, that had a great repu- 
tation in his day, and from which, in part, many of 
our own trotters are descended. The best hackneys 
now extant trace back almost invariably to one partic- 
ular horse, called Marshland Shales, who was foaled 
in 1802. He stood 14.3, was of a dun color, and is 
said to have descended from the great race horse 
Eclipse. George Borrow, in a passage of " Lavengro," 
which I venture to quote here, although it is a familiar 



CARRIAGE HORSES AND COBS. 191 

one, tells how he saw Marshland Shales at a fair m 
Norwich, when he was a boy, and the horse was old : 

" Nothing very remarkable about that creature, un- 
less in being smaller than the rest, and gentle, which 
they are not. He is almost dun, and over one eye a 
thick film has gathered. But stay, there is something 
remarkable about that horse; there is something in 
his action in which he differs from all the rest. As 
he advances, the clamor is hushed, all eyes are turned 
upon him. What looks of interest, — of respect ! 
And what is this ? People are taking off their hats ; 
surely not to that steed ! Yes, verily, men, especially 
old men, are taking off their hats to that one-eyed 
steed, and I hear more than one deep-drawn Ah ! 
' What horse is that ? ' I said to one very old fel- 
low, dressed in a white frock. ' The best in Mother 
England,' said the very old man, taking a knobbed 
stick from his mouth, and looking me in the face, 
at first carelessly, but presently with something like 
interest. ^He is old, like myself, but can still trot 
his twenty miles an hour. You won't live long, my 
swain, — tall and overgrown ones like thee never 
does ; yet if you should chance to reach my years, 
you may boast to thy great-grandboys that thou hast 
seen Marshland Shales.' " 

The hackney is almost too plain to be called a car- 
riage horse, and yet he has some style, a great deal of 
strength, and much more speed than the larger and 
more elegant sort. Man}^ hackneys, indeed, have 
showy and beautiful action. Moreover, having been 
bred in something very like its present form for a 
hundred and fifty years, the type is more likely to be 
reproduced than is that of the Cleveland bay or York- 



192 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

shire coach horse. An American horseman of national 
reputation, the importer and owner of some excellent 
hackneys, writes to me as follows : " The Norfolk and 
Yorkshire hackneys are a distinct breed of horses; 
with some thoroughbred and other crosses, of course, 
but still a distinct breed. They stamp their charac- 
teristics on their progeny in a very marked and de- 
cided manner, — more marked than any other breed 
of horses that I know of." And he goes on to describe 
them: ''The Norfolk and Yorkshire hackneys are 
from 14 hands to 15.3, or even 16 hands high. The 
average is perhaps 15.1J. A good hackney is a horse 
of considerable substance, with plenty of bone, fine 
quality, good length, on short legs, and witli riding 
shoulders. He is a fast and good walker, and his 
trot is bold, straight, and true, and fast enough for 
him to go ten to fourteen miles an hour. Many 
Korfolk and Yorkshire hackneys have trotted better 
than a mile in three minutes. The fine weight-carry- 
ing hacks one sees in Rotten Eow, and the splendid 
teams that are paraded at the meets of the coaching 
and four-in-hand clubs in Hyde Park, are nearly all 
hackneys." 

Of late years there have been imported to this 
country many representatives of all these families, 
the Cleveland bay, the Yorkshire coach horse, and the 
hackney, — some of them fine specimens, and some of 
them hardly worth their passage money. In fact, 
many of the animals exhibited at our horse shows, and 
sometimes actually winning prizes, as English car- 
riage horses and coaching stallions, have been coarse, 
clumsy brutes, but a slight distance removed from the 
cart horse, and frequently not even sound. 



CARRIAGE HORSES AND COBS. 193 

The next type of carriage horse to be considered 
is the French coach horse. A great antiquity is com- 
monly set up for this family by its admirers, but I 
have never been able to find any evidence in support 
of their assertions. JMoreover, it is difficult to dis- 
cover exactly what was the origin of the French coach 
horse. It is commonly said to have been a cross be- 
tween the English thoroughbred and the Arab. It is 
certain that the English thoroughbred figures largely 
in the pedigree, and there may have been infusions of 
Arab blood ; but the French coach horse has a bulki- 
ness of form and a mildness of temper that indicate 
some other element, and it is probaly that of the an- 
cient and admirable Fercheron family. The French 
coachers are large, handsome horses, usually chestnut, 
sometimes bay, and occasionally black in color. They 
have very fine, intelligent heads, rather short necks, 
broad chests, good sloping shoulders, and the best of 
legs and feet. 

In one respect, that of speed, they are far superior 
to any strain of English coach horses. In order to 
satisfy the government test in France, a coaching 
stallion must trot two miles and two fifths at the rate 
of a mile in three minutes, and this on a turf track. 
They are also, as a rule, more gentle and docile than 
the English carriage horses, but a little inferior to the 
latter in point of " quality," and not possessed of so 
proud a carriage. Very few French coach horses have 
been imported to the Eastern States, but there are 
many in the AVest. 

The action of a carriage horse should be bold and 
free ; but excessively high action, being incompatible 
with speed or endurance, is a fault in the true coacher. 

13 



194 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

High-steppers, or park or sensation liuibes, as they 
are sometimes called, stand by themselves, — in a 
small and very expensive class. Their gait is not 
merely, or even chiefly, a means of locomotion, — it is 
an end in itself ; and very pretty is the effect of their 
j^eculiar up-and-down step, especially when the}^ are 
driven at a slow trot, with all the accessories of a fine 
equipage. Tliey travel as if they had springs in their 
hoofs, their knees at the upward stroke seeming al- 
most to touch the musical, well burnished pole chains 
with which they are often and most suitably har- 
nessed. The high-stepper expresses, so far as a horse 
can do it, the insolence of wealth. In his prime he 
would furnish a good text for a sermon, and in his 
decay he might point the moral of a pathetic tale. 

These horses are distinctly for show, not for use. 
" You may drive your steppers," one authority re- 
marks, " very slowly for the most part, and fast a 
short distance, if they shine in a fast trot, for two 
hours or so every day; but if you want to go ten 
miles out of town and back, you must fall back on a 
useful pair, or hire post horses." 

The best of our sensation horses come from Maine, 
perhaps because its stony pastures tend to make the 
horses that run in them step high. The deep snows 
which prevail during the long winter in that latitude 
probably have a similar effect. A man wading through 
snow steps uncommonly high, and it is the same with 
a horse. Ten years ago a really high-stepping carriage 
horse was almost unknown in this country, but we 
raise many of them now ; the demand partly causing 
the supply to exist, and partly calling it forth from 
its hiding place where it existed before. A '^ Down 



CARRIAGE HORSES AND COBS. 195 

East" farmer raises a colt or two from good stock, 
which, being turned out for several years on a rocky 
hillside, and having also, it may be, a tendency in. 
that direction, acquire the habit of lifting their feet 
particularly high wlien they trot. The owner looks 
upon this action as a defect rather than a merit, but 
fashionable people in New York and Boston think 
otherwise : it soon becomes known that the dealers 
who go from farm to farm will pay a good price for 
horses with, excessively high action, and accordingly 
such horses are bred. 

But is there no family of American coachers ? 
Good horses having been raised in this country for at 
least one hundred and fifty years, is it possible that 
in all that time we have not produced a typical car- 
riage horse of our own ? Alas ! no, although we have 
ample material for the purpose. One of the most 
brilliant performers that appeared on the trotting 
course during the season of 1890 was Pamlico, a five- 
year-old stallion, owned in North Carolina, but bred 
in Vermont. Pamlico won many races, obtained a 
record of 2.16f in a fourth heat, and proved himself 
to be a very enduring and speedy trotter. But, be- 
sides being a trotter, Pamlico, except for some want 
of height, is almost an ideal coach horse. He is of a 
rich bay color, with black points ; his back is short, 
his shape round and smooth, with neither the angu- 
larities nor the high rump that are associated with 
the trotting model ; his neck inclines to arch ; he has 
a handsome head, with fine ears, large eyes, widely 
separated ; and, race horse though he is, Pamlico pos- 
Besses the bold, proud action of a coaching stallion. 
Now Pamlico, though an unusual, is not an excep- 



196 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

tional type, and tlie same element from which he 
derives his coaching appearance is found in a large 
proportion of our trotting stock. Pamlico's grandsire 
and our most famous trotting stallion was E-ysdyck's 
Hambletonian, who died about fourteen years ago. 
As I have mentioned in an earlier chapter, he was de- 
scended in the paternal line from Mambrino, one of 
the best and stoutest thoroughbreds that ever ran in 
England ; but his dam was by Bellfounder, and Bell- 
founder was a Norfolk trotter of the purest stamp. 
Here, then, we have the same element upon which the 
English hackney is based. 

The Hambletonian family possesses a wonderful 
aptitude for retaining its own and assimilating other 
good qualities ; and when united with strains possess- 
ing the nervous energy and the ''quality" in which 
it is deficient, it rises to a high degree of excellence, 
as in the Volunteers, the Almonts, and many others. 
The Hambletonian carriage horse is an easy poten- 
tiality.^ Other trotting families, notably the Mam- 
brino Patchens and some of the Clays, contain similar 
material. 

Carriage horses thus bred would have unusual speed. 
They would be a race of trotting coachers, and those 
that lacked the fineness of a carriage horse would 
nevertheless be strong, serviceable animals, easily sold 
at a fair price ; whereas the strictly trotting-bred 
horse, like the strictly running-bred horse, is apt to 
prove good for nothing if not good for racing. 

In speaking of Pamlico, I mentioned his bold, high 
action. This he does not inherit from his Hamble- 

1 It has been realized to a considerable extent at the Payne 
Stock Farm in Hinsdale, Massachusetts. 



CARRIAGE HORSES AND COBS. 197 

tonian sire. The Hainbletoiiiau gait is a loug, wide, 
distinctly trotting gait. But Pamlico's dam was a 
Morgan, of the Lambert family, and he derives his 
showy action from her. Some of the best carriage 
horses and cobs in the world have been bred in much 
the same way that Pamlico is bred. 

I will state some examples. Fifty years ago there 
was a big horse in Pranklin County, Maine, called the 
Eaton horse. ^ He was a sorrel, and he weighed 1,450 
pounds. Like Kysdick's Hambletonian, he was a 
long-striding, lumbering beast, and most of his de- 
scendants resembled him in these respects : they 
were fast, but sluggish, and poor roadsters. How- 
ever, crossed with small, high-stepping Morgan mares, 
the Eaton horse produced no less than three fine 
families of carriage horses, cobs, and roadsters, one 
of which attained distinction on two continents and 
in three countries. 

The first of these families was that of Plying Eaton, 
a handsome bay horse standing about 15^ hands, and 
weighing about 975 pounds. Plying Eaton inherited 
the high action of his dam. He had a beautiful 
arched neck, a heavy but fine mane, a tail well carried, 
a short- back, with that slight graceful downward 
curvature of the spine which is a feature of the Arab 
formation. Despite his excessive knee action, his 
motions were easy and elastic; and he was a cour- 
ageous, tireless roadster. Flying Eaton had great 
intelligence and one intellectual quality which is 
frequent in the dog, but less common in the horse, 
namely, a sense of humor. 

1 He was sired hy the Avery horse, and he by Bucephalus, a big 
chestnut horse supposed to be a grandson of Messenger. The dam 
of the Eaton horse was also said to be a Messenger. 



198 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

"If a stranger entered liis stall/' relates a former 
owner, " he would act as if he was going to kill him, 
and yet he was perfectly kind. It was only his fun. 
Whenever a woman entered the stall, he would be 
extremely gentle. I used to let him loose in the 
stable, and he would come rushing, stamping up, 
showing his teeth and acting as if he meant to 
slaughter me on the spot. But when he reached' me 
he would poke his nose in my face as pleasant as 
could be, and invite me to stroke him." 

Altogether, Flying Eaton was a perfect cob, with 
speed and endurance such as very few cobs indeed 
possess. 

Within a few miles of the small town where Fly- 
ing Eaton was foaled, a stout little Morgan mare very 
much like the dam of Flying Eaton used to be driven 
by a farmer's boy. She also was a high stepper, and 
so courageous and ambitious that she never could 
be persuaded or compelled to walk while in harness. 
The hills are very steep and long in that neighbor- 
hood, but she invariably surmounted them at a lively 
trot ; and on the one or two occasions when a serious 
attempt was made to moderate her impetuosity, she re- 
sisted so strongly as to upset the vehicle in a ditch. 
This little mare became the mother of a very hand- 
some, high-stepping chestnut colt (his sire being the 
Eaton horse) which, though weighted with the name 
of Shepherd F. Knapp, made a reputation in this coun- 
try, in France, and in England. Mr. Burdett-Coutts 
speaks of him as being "unsurpassed for pace and 
action," and he conjectures that this horse derived his 
gait and style from the Norfolk trotter blood of Bell- 
founder. But this is a mistake ; Knapp, as we have 
seen, had not a drop of that blood. 



CARRIAGE HORSES AND COBS. 199 

Shepherd F. Knapp was larger than his half-brother, 
Flying Eaton, but much like him in action and in 
character. He was exported to England in 1864. 
Afterward he was sent to France, where he trotted a 
race of two and a half miles and defeated another 
American-bred horse. The time was 6.14, or a little 
better than at the rate of a mile in 2.30. Shepherd 
F. Knapp sired Capucine, the fastest, gamiest trotter 
ever bred on the Continent, and it is said that his 
blood has also improved the breed of French coach 
horses. It is certain that in England, whither Shep- 
herd F. Knapp was soon returned, his descendants 
and those of his son Washington are among the best 
hackneys ever raised there, being noted for their 
beauty and quality, as well as for their speed. It is 
not nnlikely that among the very hackneys recently 
imported to this country are some that have descended 
from the little gray mare that used to trot so gallantly 
over the steep hills of Franklin County, Maine. 

The last of the three families which I have men- 
tioned as descending from the old Eaton horse, crossed 
with Morgan mares, is that of Troublesome. ^ This 
horse never attained more than a local reputation, and 
his col'ts had the common defect, inherited from him, 
of hitting their fore legs ; but his roading qualities 
were such as to entitle him to mention along with 
Flying Eaton and Shepherd F. Knapp. Troublesome 
was a handsome, round-bodied bay horse, of great 
style and spirit. He weighed about eleven hundred 
pounds, and was very speedy. His knee action, like 

1 Troublesome was sired by the Norton horse, aud he by the 
Eaton horse, out of a IVforgan mare. The Norton horse was one 
of the handsomest horses ever raised in Maine. 



200 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

that of Flying Eaton and of Shepherd F. Knapp, was 
extremely high. 

Troublesome belonged for many years to " Squire " 
Abner Toothaker, a prominent man in the little village 
of Rangeley, at the head of Rangeley Lake, in the 
backwoods. In those days E-angeley was at least fifty 
miles from the railroad, and, as the Squire's business 
often took him far from home, it was necessary that 
he should have good roadsters. More than once he 
drove from Bangor to Phillips (a village twenty-one 
miles " out " from the lake) in one day, although the 
distance is ninety miles ; and there was a standing 
offer on his part to drive Troublesome one hundred 
miles between sunrise and sundown, for a bet of one 
thousand dollars. 

Squire Toothaker was a hard-visaged old gentleman, 
who always sat a little sideways in his carriage, and 
clucked viciously to his horse out of the corner of 
his mouth. Once he drove Troublesome to a sleigh 
seventy-six miles in one short day, besides racing him 
three or four additional miles against horses which he 
encountered at a village eii route. On another occa- 
sion he drove from Greenvale to Phillips, a distance 
of eighteen miles, in one hour. I have traversed this 
road several times : it is rough and hilly, and, though 
it descends for perhaps two thirds of the way, there 
are several long, steep hills to ascend. I know that it 
takes a good horse to cover this road without distress 
in two hours. But Troublesome did it in one hour. 

Troublesome had a son called Wild Tiger, who also 
was out of a Morgan dam. The name is an ambitious 
one, but the horse seems to have deserved it. He 
too was a bay horse, with four white feet, and a dash 



CARRIAGE HORSES AND COBS. 201 

of white in liis face. His knee action was excessively 
high ; he carried his head high, and, altogether, he 
showed so much dash and power and spirit, and 
seemed to go so fast, — he could in fact trot a 2.40 
gait, — that he presented a very formidable appear- 
ance. It is said that nobody ever looked behind and 
saw Wild Tiger approaching, without turning aside 
and giving him the road. Nevertheless, at a gait of 
six or seven miles an hour. Wild Tiger was temperate 
enough to be driven by a woman ; but when his blood 
was up, it took a strong man to control him. One 
winter day, Squire Toothaker drove this horse from 
Phillips to Augusta, fifty-two miles, in live and one 
half hours. The snow-drifts near Phillips were so 
deep that it took him one hour to go the first five 
miles, so that he drove the remaining forty-seven 
miles in four hours and a half. AVild Tiger pidled 
all the way, and came out fresh the next morning. 

Now these successes in breeding were not acciden- 
tal, for, as we have seen, in three separate cases, a 
family of extraordinary merit sprang from the union 
of the Eaton horse with a quick and high-stepping 
Morgan mare. So, also, as I have stated, a similar 
cross between the Hambletonian stock and Morgan 
mares has resulted equally well. Why, then, do we 
not continue to raise such incomparable hackneys as 
Shepherd F. Knapp, and such tough, speedy, and 
beautiful cobs as the Flying Eatons ? The answer 
must be that our farmers are absorbed in the pur- 
suit of that ignis fatuus, as it commonly proves, the 
remunerative trotter. 

I have spoken of the Flying Eatons as cobs, but per- 
haps incorrectly. What is a cob ? The term is so 



202 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

ambiguous that many stanch horsemen exclude it 
from their categories. Generally speaking, any small- 
ish, chunky horse, especially if his tail be cut short, is 
a cob. The modern hackney usually stands a little 
too high to be called a cob. The old Morgan horse 
— of the small type — was a perfect cob, powerful, 
speedy, docile, enduring, and possessed of great style. 
He was a saddle as well as a harness cob. The Mor- 
gan race has lately been revived, largely with the 
object of using it as a trotting cross. This purpose 
is a laudable one, and yet the Morgan cob should also 
be preserved. 

Not long since, in a small New England village, I 
came by chance upon a perfect specimen of this 
variety. It was a little bay mare, with a rather long 
body and round barrel. She stood on short legs, and 
must have been less than fifteen hands high, but she 
had the strength, in all the moving parts, of a sixteen- 
hand horse. Her neck was thick but not coarse, her 
head small and Arabian in shape, with fine, aristo- 
cratic, intelligent ears, and an eye flashing with spirit 
and courage. She was nineteen years old when I saw 
her, and hollow-backed, but still so spirited as to re- 
quire a man's hand upon the reins. A cob of this 
kind is capable of an immense amount of work, and 
will perform it upon half the food required by a big 
horse. 

The ordinary cob is fat and faint-hearted, well fitted 
to draw a village cart gently about a village, but likely 
to go to pieces if put to any severe task. He has the 
bulkiness of a small cart horse, but lacks the nervous 
energy needed to make him a good roadster or a good 
saddle horse. He shines at horse shows, his broad 



CARRIAGE HORSES AND COBS. 203 

back being admirably adaiDtecl for the display of trap- 
pings and caparisons ; and he is a source of wealth to 
fashionable dealers. A small " blocky " horse with a 
rather pretty head, weak legs perhaps, and no speed, 
will go a-begging in the country for ^125 or $150; 
but in the hands of the city dealer, clipped, docked, 
and hogged, he easily brings $250 or $300. He is 
no longer a " little horse," but a " cob." 

The modern fashion of using cobs and small horses 
generally for carriage purposes is an improvement in 
several ways, and chiefly because it is more humane ■-, 
the wear and tear of their feet upon the pavements 
being considerably less than it is in the case of a large 
horse. Formerly the London job-masters had no 
horses in their stables under sixteen hands high ; now 
they have many, chiefly for single brougham use, from 
fifteen hands upward, and the same tendency prevails 
in this country. In fact, the use of small carriage 
horses followed the introduction of those less bulky 
and lighter vehicles that are due chiefly to the skill and 
originality of American builders ; but it is doubtful if 
heavy carriages, even, are not drawn more easily, as a 
rule, by horses that weigh from nine hundred to ten 
hundred than by those that weigh from ten hundred 
to twelve hundred pounds. Such, I have found, is the 
common opinion of American horsemen, and such 
seems to be the experience of English coach drivers. 

"In these days," writes the Duke of Beaufort, 
" when the road coaches only carry passengers, and no 
luggage to speak of, even if there is any at all, we 
should prefer, for all sorts of roads, short-stepping 
and small, though thick horses. They are infinitely 
pleasanter to drive. Anybody who has had the ex- 



204 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

perience of taking off a big, lolloping team of rather 
under-bred horses, who are very tired, and have been 
hanging on the coachman's hands for the last two 
or three miles of the stage, will understand what a 
pleasure and relief it is to feel the quick, sharp trot 
of a little team of fresh horses." 

When, however, it is a question of hauling a heavy 
load, such as an omnibus, at a jog trot on level ground, 
then the big horse is required. There must be a good 
weight to throw into the collar. Moreover, when 
horses are well bred and well shaped, neither beefy 
nor leggy, but bony and muscular, they can hardly be 
too big. " A pair of fifteen-hand horses," an English 
authority writes, "will always have to be pulling at 
an ordinary phaeton ; whereas the same carriage seems 
to roll after a pair of 15.2^'s of its own motion, leav- 
ing them light in hand, well collected, and with full 
play for their action." 

This statement, however, is not, as might be thought, 
inconsistent with the opinion just expressed concern- 
ing the superiority of small horses as fast weight- 
pullers. They are better for this purpose, not because 
they are small, but because they usually have the rel- 
ative shortness of limb and of stride which are me- 
chanically adapted for pulling a moderate load at a 
brisk pace. When these characteristics are found in 
larger horses, as, for example, they often are in the 
Percheron family, you have animals that are capable 
of great tasks. A span of Percherons are said to have 
drawn an omnibus around a mile track in four min- 
utes ; and the gray Norman-Percheron stallions that 
drew the diligence from Calais to Paris in pre-railway 
days trotted and galloped at the rate of eleven miles 



CARRIAGE HORSES AND COBS. 205 

an hour, equalling the speed of their better bred Eng- 
lish contemporaries, but not, it is true, keeping it up 
so long ; their stages being but five miles in length, 
whereas the English stages were ten miles. 

But whatever the size of the carriage horse, and 
whatever the use for which he is intended, — whether 
he is to be a big, prancing coacher, or a fast-stepping 
barouche horse, or a useful, medium-sized animal, or a 
stout one for a brougham, or a showy one for a phae- 
ton, or an all-day nag for a comparatively light car- 
riage and long drives, — whether he is to be a horse, a 
cob, or a pony, — let him have the inward energy and 
the outward grace that only a dash of thoroughbred 
or Arab blood can supply. Half-bred horses are not 
only the most useful, but the most beautiful, the 
world over. 

















'^^m^m^'^^- ^ 



VIII. 



CART HORSES. 



EVERYBODY who cares for the beautiful or the 
picturesque, whether or not he be touched by 
the true hippie passion, must take an interest in cart 
horses. They are attractive and pleasant to look 
upon merely as animals, quite apart from the fact 
that you can put bits in their mouths, and cause 
them to expend their strength at the will and in 
the service of man. The generic difference in this 
respect between cart horses and racers is well indi- 
cated by Mr. Hamerton. 

" The race horse," he says, " has the charms of a 
tail coat, of a trained pear tree, of all such superfine 
results of human ingenuity, but he has lost the glory 
of nature. Look at his straight neck, at the way 
he holds his head, at his eager, anxious eye, often 



CART HORSES. 207 

irritable and vicious ! Breeders for the turf have 
succeeded in substituting the straight line for the 
curve, as the dominant expressional line, a sure 
and scientilic manner of eradicating the elements of 
beauty. No real artist would ever paint race horses 
from choice. Good artists have occasionally painted 
them for money. The meagre limbs, straight lines, 
and shiny coat have slight charm for an artist, who 
generally chooses either what is beautiful or what is 
picturesque, and the race horse is neither picturesque 
nor beautiful." 

Certainly there is some exaggeration here. Many 
thoroughbred horses are good-tempered and affection- 
ate, and not unduly nervous. In the recent Badmin- 
ton volume on Driving, there is an account of a 
young thoroughbred mare, that, having never been 
in harness before, was attached one day to a dog-cart, 
and driven thirty miles up and down hill, without 
showing the least fear or resistance. A thoroughbred 
of this character commonly has large, luminous eyes, 
more beautiful than those possessed by any other 
dumb animal. The delicately cut ear, the round, 
thin, quivering nostril, and even the smooth and 
shining coat, — these, again, are surely forms of the 
beautiful, though not of the picturesque. It must 
be remembered, also, that among thoroughbred horses 
there is a great variety of structure and disposition. 
Many of them are comparatively short in leg, with 
round body and curved neck. Such was the old 
type of thoroughbred when the Arab blood from 
which the present race has chiefly been derived was 
"closer up," as horsemen say. 

In the main, however, Mr. Hamerton's remarks on 



208 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

this point are just, and the typical thoroughbred 
especially the typical English thoroughbred, is the 
nervous, irritable, inartistic animal that he describes. 

The cart horse, on the other hand, is a common 
and appropriate figure in painting. 

Among the minor pictures by Turner in the Na- 
tional Gallery at London, not the least interesting is 
one which represents a stout gray farm or cart horse, 
taking his ease in the stable, and eating hay from a 
well filled rack above his head. He stands in a wide 
stall, heaped with yellow straw and flooded with sun- 
shine, so that the scene is one of equine pleasure 
and repose, delightful to the human eye on that ac- 
count, as well as for its harmonious and beautiful 
coloring. 

There is another homespun sight which English 
artists never tire of representing. It is that of a 
string of farm horses, whose day's work is finished, 
at nightfall. With the harness still upon their backs, 
the}'' have been ridden or led to drink at a cool, elm- 
shaded stream, where they stand, fetlock deep, some 
slowly and luxuriously slaking their thirst, w^hile 
others gaze idly about, their heads half raised above 
the surface of the water. This is one of those fa- 
miliar though foreign sights, as to which an agreeable 
confusion is apt to arise in the mind of an American; 
for he does not always clearly remember whether he 
has seen them in reality or in a picture, or read 
about them in a novel, the truth often being that 
his knowledge has been derived in each of these 
ways. Of all equine pictures, none, I suppose, is 
better known than Kosa Bonheur's Horse Fair. Her 
noble Percherons, drawn with fond fidelity, are per- 



CART HORSES. 209 

haps the most ideal representation of cart horses in 
the world, and yet no exaggeration of the reality. 

Almost all the accessories of the cart horse, his 
trappings, the uses to which he is put, the place in 
which he is kept, the loads that he pulls, are pictu- 
resque. Most often one thinks of him as an agricul- 
tural character, a true son of the soil, who slowly 
draws home a huge pile of hay, or is found at the 
plough, turning up long, glistening lines of rich 
earth. There is nothing spick and span about his 
stable, but, on the contrary, it is marked by pictu- 
resque disorder, — plenty of straw about, the stalls, 
mangers, and roof tinted a rich brown by the long 
lapse of time, cobwebs hanging luxuriantly overhead, 
deep mows of hay, and capacious gram-chests within 
easy reach to hold his provender. 

Nor does the cart horse fail to harmonize with 
his surroundings in the city, where he receives more 
grain and more grooming than are obtainable on the 
farm. His shape, though still round, is here more 
elegant, his neck takes a prouder curve, and his 
coat becomes smooth and glossy : fit servant of com- 
merce ; solid and substantial as the Bank of Eng- 
land; conscious of his strength, like a merchant of 
indisputable credit ; able to transport the wealth of 
the Indies from wharves to warehouses, or to draw 
towering piles of wool from the railroad to the fac- 
tory. Smaller animals may clatter over the massive 
pavements of the city, but the cart horse, with his 
slow, majestic step and proudly bent head, is its 
proper denizen of the equine race. 

Long established and wealthy firms do not hesitate 
to borrow splendor from the excellence of their cart 

14 



210 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

horses. Those of the London brewers especially — 
the twelve Beer Kings, as they used to be called — 
have a world-wide reputation. Formerly, each brewer 
had an equine color of his own ; and they were " as 
particular," says a recent writer, " about the colors 
and matchings of their dray horses as of their own 
four-in-hands, or the court chariot pairs of their titled 
wives. One was celebrated for a black, the original 
dray horse color ; another, for a brown, a roan, a gray, 
or chestnut team. But at present, such is the de- 
mand for horses of this class that they are compelled 
to be content with any color, and to moderate the 
old standard of height." The brewers^ horses, it 
may be remarked parenthetically, are fond of beer, 
but they are allowed to have it only when recovering 
from illness ; at such times it is of service as a tonic. 
Horses take naturally to intoxicating liquors , beer, 
spirits, and more frequently wine, are often adminis- 
tered to trotters in a long-drawn contest, and with 
excellent results. Champagne and soda-water, as I 
have stated in a previous chapter, is the pleasant 
draught which one famous driver employs on these 
occasions. 

The " city horses " of Boston, used to carry off 
ashes and garbage, have long enjoyed a high repu- 
tation for strength and beauty, and the excellent con- 
dition which they almost invariably show testifies to 
the horsemanship of the official, whoever he may be, 
having them in charge. There is in the same city a 
noted patent-medicine house, whose stalwart four-in- 
hands may be supposed to symbolize the strength of 
their drugs. Twenty years ago there used to be a 
cigar and candy pedler traversing tiie mountainous 



CART HORSES. 211 

region in the northwestern part of Massachusetts, 
who had a large, gayly painted wagon, drawn by four 
stout, handsome gray horses, in which lie took a 
proper pride ; but one night tlie whole establishment 
perished in the flames, the stable where the pedler 
put up having taken fire, and the team was never 
reproduced. 

Between the cart horse and his driver there usu- 
ally exists, in one respect at least, the ideal relation, 
that is, the driver serves also as groom. Man and 
horse labor together, and when the day's work is 
done it is the driver who gives the hungry and tired 
beast his supper, his bed, and perchance his rubbing 
down. Thus the horse associates with the man the 
pleasures as well as the toils of equine life. I con- 
fess that often, vexed by legal problems, I have looked 
out of my office window and envied the teamsters in 
the street. To be in charge of a good, sleek, fat pair 
of cart horses, to live in the open air, to digest any- 
thing that you may see fit to impose upon your stom- 
ach, to have a face beautifully colored by the elements 
and by whiskey, thoroughly assimilated, — is not this 
to be happy ? There is a certain negro teamster, 
who, as it appears to me, stands at the acme of un- 
intellectual existence. He drives a very fine pair 
of jet-black horses, belonging to a coal merchant. 
These horses have taken many premiums at horse 
shows, and they bear the appropriate names of King 
Cole and Chloe. Evidently the negro is wrapped up 
m them. Once or twice, at least, every year, he ex- 
hibits the animals at a show or fair, and on these 
occasions he has nothing to do except to talk ; and I 
know of no machine that runs more easily and pleas- 



212 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

antly than tlie tongue of a horseman under such cir- 
cumstances. I discovered accidentally one day that 
the very color of the horses is a source of pleasure 
to him. It was in winter, and the streets were heavy 
with snow and slush. The team pulled a big load of 
coal so neatly out of the slough, that a bystander 
was moved to express his admiration at their prow- 
ess. "Huh!'' exclaimed the colored man, grinning 
from ear to ear, "you see, Mistah, them horses is 
black!'' 

The arched neck of the cart horse is a thing not 
only of beauty, but also of utility. Unless he arches 
his neck, he cannot be " collected," so as to pull with 
an economy of strength. Anybody who has ridden 
much on the front platform of a horse car must have 
noticed a great difference in the action of differ- 
ent teams — according to the ability of the driver — 
when a heavily loaded car is to be started. Some 
horses throw up their heads, and strike out wildly 
with their fore feet, making a violent effort, and slip- 
ping on the pavement. Others, better trained, start 
more slowly, stepping shortly on their toes, their legs 
well under them, their necks arched, — and this is 
the true way. 

Here, also, as in the case of road horses, I think 
that a proper check rein may be beneficial. The 
check rein of a cart horse, as commonly used, is at- 
tached neither to the headstall nor to the saddle, but 
is simply a bridle rein, buckling on the bit, and pass- 
ing around the top of the hames. It does not pull 
the horse's head up, but rather pulls it in, thus tend- 
ing to arch the neck and to steady the animal. In 
going up hill even this form of check would be out 



CART HORSES. 213 

of place, but on level ground it must, I think, be of 
assistance.-^ 

There is an affinity between the lighter kinds of 
cart horse — many of whom, such as the Percheron, 
are very active — and the war horse. The famous Jus- 
tin Morgan, of whom I have spoken in previous chap- 
ters, founder of the great road horse family, was not 
only the best weight-puller of his time, besides being 
a fast runner, but, though a small animal, was also 
much in request for musters and other military oc- 
casions, on account of his superb carriage and com- 
manding appearance. A horse of this kind, but 
weighing two or three hundred pounds more, would 
have made an ideal charger for a knight of the Middle 
Ages. The knight himself, his armor, and the armor 
worn by the horse, were estimated at nearly or quite 
four hundred pounds. In fact, so heavy and cumber- 
some were the horseman's accoutrements that two 
squires were often needed to exalt him to the saddle, 
and, once overthrown, it was difficult for him to rise 
without assistance. The suffocation of some hapless 
contestant who had the ill luck to fall upon his 
stomach was a not uncommon incident of a passage 
at arms. To carry a knight in full armor required a 
beast of great size and strength, and doubtless, like 
the modern fire-engine horse, he was most usefully 
employed at one of two gaits, a walk or a hand-gallop. 
The knight did not ride him, as a rule, except when 
some martial business was on hand. At other times, 
his squire bestrode the war horse, the knight himself 

1 Such, I find, is the opinion of an English Vet, R. S. Rey- 
nolds, M. R. C. V. S. of Liverpool, who has published a little book 
called " An Essay on the Breeding and Management of Draught 
Horses." 



214 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

travelling more quickly and comfortably upon his 
jennet. 

By most of the authorities the war horse of the 
Middle Ages is identified with the old black cart 
horse, or shire horse, of England. A recent work by 
Mr. Walter Gilbey is entitled " The Old English War 
Horse or Shire Horse," thus assuming that they were 
one and the same ; and the late Mr. Walsh was also 
of this opinion, for he wrote as follows : " From time 
immemorial this country has ^Jossessed a heavy and 
comparatively misshapen animal, the more active of 
which [sic] were formerly used as chargers or pack- 
horses, while the others were devoted to the plough." 
And he gives the- following unflattering account of 
him: "In color almost invariably black, with a great 
fiddle-case in place of a head, and feet concealed in 
long masses of hair depending from misshapen legs, 
he united flat sides, upright shoulders, mean and nar- 
row hips, and very drooping quarters." Such was the 
shire horse, — so called because he was raised almost 
exclusively in the Shires or Midland counties. 

Shire horses are still bred, but they have been 
improved by crossing with Flemish stallions. The 
London dray horses are mainly shire horses, and 
since the shire horse is the only purely English cart 
horse, — that is, the only one of English origin and 
raised on English soil, — it is fashionable in Eng- 
land to speak of '' shire horses," and never of " cart 
horses." Nevertheless, when a society was formed in 
that country, some years ago, to improve the breed of 
agricultural horses "not being Clydesdales or Suf- 
folks," the name " English Cart Horse Society " was 
taken. The fact is, that hunters, coachers, and race 



CART HORSES. 215 

horses are now raised more numerously than cart 
horses in the shires, and hence the term •' shire 
horse " is inaccurate, as well as somewhat vague. 
The old black cart horse, or shire horse, is now most 
nearly represented by the black horse of Lincolnshire. 
One hesitates to conclude that the beautiful, high- 
mettled charger of the Middle Ages, as he has been 
described by poets and romancers, was really a dull, 
ugly beast, with "■ misshapen legs," and " a great 
fiddle-case in place of a head." Was it such a steed 
that carried the Disinherited Knight in his encounter 
with Brian de Bois Guilbert ? Sir Walter Scott re- 
lates, that " the trumpets had no sooner given the 
signal than the champions vanished from their posts 
with the speed of lightning, and closed in the centre 
of the lists with the shock of a thunderbolt " ; and 
the charger of the Disinherited Knight is described 
as "wheeling with the agility of a hawk upon the 
wmg." It is possible that the English shire horse, 
or war horse, was improved by crosses of Arab blood, 
for Arab horses might have been brought into Eng- 
land at the time of the Crusades. Isaac of York, it 
will be remembered, supplied Ivanhoe with the horse 
and armor which he used when he overthrew Brian 
de Bois Guilbert, and awarded the crown of beauty to 
Kowena; and the thrifty Jew exclaimed to Kebecca, 
as they gazed upon the conflict, " Ah, the good horse 
that was brought all the long way from Barbary, he 
takes no more care of him than if he were a wild 
ass's colt ! " In this, however, Isaac of York must 
have been misreported by Sir Walter, No Barbary 
horse or Eastern horse of any description was ever 
big or strong enough to carry a knight in armor, 



216 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

although, as I have suggested, it is possible that the 
native horse of England obtained some beauty, grace, 
and agility by an infusion of Eastern blood. 

Mr. Gilbey, so far as I know, is the only writer 
who has endeavored to prove, though others have 
asserted, the identity of the war horse of the Middle 
Ages with the old black cart horse of England ; and 
he relies almost entirely upon the evidence of coins 
and other graven representations. But in such fig- 
ures much must be allowed for the taste or caprice 
of the artist, and I suspect that Mr. Gilbey's series 
might be impugned by others. For the period be- 
ginning about the year 1500 he shows the famous 
white horse of Albert Dlirer, that has indeed the char- 
acteristics of a cart horse. But in the College of 
Arms there is preserved an illustrated roll, known 
as Tournament Roll, commemorating a grand tour- 
nament which took place at Westminster on February 
12, 1510, in honor of Queen Katherine ; and the war 
horse represented by this roll is a much finer beast 
than Albert Diirer's. He has a beautifully curved 
neck, a small, well shaped head, and he is disfigured 
by no long hairs at the fetlock joints. This picture 
may of course be idealized, but it is as good historical 
evidence as the coins produced by Mr. Gilbey. The 
whole matter is one of not very profitable conjecture, 
but it is worth remembering that the Middle Ages, 
during which the war horse was in daily use, consti- 
tuted a long period, and it is hardly credible that in 
this time a true war horse should not have been de- 
veloped, more active, spirited, and beautiful than the 
shire horse. One writer, indeed, of a date as early 
as the sixteenth century, speaks of his high action, — 



CART HORSES. 21 T 

which would be natural iu such an animal as I have 
imagined, but which was never seen in the shire 
horses. 

But, however this may be, the shire horse is a 
beast of great antiquity, though much improved dur- 
ing the past two centuries. In fact, there are some 
living members of the breed whose pedigrees can be 
traced back for at least one hundred and fifty years, 
and this is more than can be said of any other exist- 
ing cart horse family. One reason for the improve- 
ment is a mechanical discovery as to the muscular 
action of the cart horse. It used to be thought that 
he did his work by perpetually tumbling against his 
collar, as it were, thus bringing his weight to bear, 
and consequently that his fore quarters ought to be as 
heavy as possible ; it was no harm if his shoulder 
bone were straight, and as for his hind quarters it 
did not matter much what they were. But this notion 
has been exploded, and it is now perceived that a 
cart horse pulls by muscle rather than by weight, and 
more by the muscles of his hind quarters and legs 
than by those of his fore quarters. The structure of 
a cart horse should therefore bear a general resem- 
blance to that of a racer or trotter, except that his 
legs should be shorter, his shoulder less oblique, and 
his rump not higher than the withers. 

The Saturday Eeview once made some excellent 
observations on this subject, as follows : " There are 
many points, indeed, which good horses of nearly all 
breeds share in com.mon. For instance, the following 
descriptions, taken at random from different news- 
papers : he is ' thick, level, and strong ' ; he ' stands 
on short, well formed limbs, and, like several good 



218 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

horses, he sports curls of hair on his fetlocks ' ; ^ he 
is of good substance, deep-bodied, and set off by those 
powerful yet sloping shoulders,' etc. ; ^ he has also a 
deep body, with great muscular development in his 
rump, quarters, thighs, and gaskins,' — although they 
might equally apply to certain cart horses, were one 
and all written of race horses. . . . An excellent 
judge, again, once wrote that horses ' with strong 
backs and loins, wide hips, and great muscular quar- 
ters, with sound and well shaped hocks, generally 
win,' — not prizes at agricultural shows, as cart stal- 
lions, but races at Ascot." 

Another English breed of cart horses, or, in this 
case, more properly farm horses, was the Suffolk 
Punch, which once became almost extinct, but has 
lately been revived in a somewhat different form. 
These were sorrel horses, smaller and more active 
than the shire horse, and noted for their docility. 
They stood low in front, and were disfigured by very 
upright shoulders ; but they were round and stout, 
and had good heads. Readers of " Sandford and Mer- 
ton" will recall the delight of Harry when his father, 
Farmer Sandford, received the present of a span 
of Suffolk Punches from Mr. Merton, father of the 
wicked but repentant Tommy. Harry rushes into 
the house to announce the arrival of two strange and 
beautiful horses, whereupon, says the tale, the elder 
Sandford, who in all other respects is represented as 
a sedate and even phlegmatic person, "started up, 
overset the liquor and the table, and, making a hasty 
apology to Mr. Merton, ran out to see these wonderful 
animals. Presently he returned in equal admiration 
with his son. ' Master Merton/ said he, 'I did not 



CART HORSES. 219 

thiuk you had been so good a judge of a horse. 
I sujDpose they are a new purchase which you want 
to have my opinion upon, and I can assure you they 
are the true Suffolk sorrels, the first breed of working 
horses in the kingdom; and these are some of the 
best of their kind.'" Being undeceived, he at first 
refused the gift, but was finally persuaded to accept 
it, to the great content of both Harry and Tommy. 

The stanchness of the Suffolk Punches was prover- 
bial, and they would have been called in the language 
of the modern sale stable, "dead-down, true pullers." 
This quality was often displayed at pulling matches, 
where the competing teams would fall upon their 
knees at a given signal (the ground being strewed 
with straw or sand), and in that position move a 
great weight. The only account I have ever seen of 
the origin of this breed states that it was formed 
by crossing Norman stallions with the Suffolk cart 
mare. 

Perhaps the most popular breed of cart horses 
now used in England is the Clydesdale. This, as 
the name implies, is a Scotch family, but its origin 
is obscure, though tradition ascribes it to a cross 
made by an unascertained Duke of Hamilton be- 
tween the draught mares of the country and some 
Dutch stallions. Clydesdales, with the exception of 
the Percherons, have more " quality " — that is, finer 
characteristics and a better bred appearance — than 
any other cart horses. Their coat is more silky, their 
ears are smaller, their heads and necks more beauti- 
ful, and the whole body is more finely turned. Their 
faults are a tendency to be too long in the leg, some- 
what light-waisted, and, occasionally, a little hot in 



220 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

temper. Their color is bay, brown, or black. Some 
of these horses are very beautiful, and very large also. 
In Cassell's Book of the Horse, there is an excellent 
colored illustration of Prince Albert, a magnificent 
Clydesdale stallion, seventeen hands high. 

The only peer of the Clydesdale is the Percheron. 
This horse, as everybody knows, is usually gray in 
color, though sometimes black, and less frequently 
chestnut or bay. The Percheron stands on some- 
what shorter legs than th^ Clydesdale, and is more 
compactly built, his head and ears being as fine as 
those of his rival, and commonly even smaller. He 
carries a long, thick mane, but wears less hair 
than the latter on his fetlock joints. In England 
hairy fetlocks are considered a mark of beauty ; 
but they retain both dirt and moisture, and conse- 
quently, unless carefully cleaned and dried, produce 
*' scratches." 

Nothing is certainly known as to the origin of the 
Percheron, though some writers assert that he is de- 
scended in part, at least, from Arab stock. There is 
no positive proof of this, and the assumption rests 
chiefly upon an undoubted resemblance between the 
Arab and the Percheron, notwithstanding the great 
difference between them in size and weight. The Per- 
cheron has the same intelligent and gentle disposi- 
tion as the Arab, and, like him, a compact body, an 
arched neck, large eyes, and a tail well set on. There 
seems also to be a tendency in the breed to revert to 
a smaller type ; some very fine Percheron stallions 
stand no more than 15 hands, and the best of them 
rarely exceed 16|- hands. This tendency would in- 
dicate a derivation from smaller ancestors ; and it 



CART HORSES. 221 

renders the Percheron a more desirable cross than the 
Clydesdale, when the object is to obtain a road horse 
or a light cart horse. The Percheron's trot also is 
faster than that of the Clydesdale, which consti- 
tutes another reason for his superiority in this di- 
rection. The Clydesdale, on the other hand, being a 
more rapid walker than the Percheron, and being un- 
likely to breed smaller animals than himself, makes 
the better cross when the object is to produce a 
heavy cart horse. 

Many stories are told of feats performed by Per- 
cherons, some of which I have mentioned in the pre- 
ceding chapter. 

M. du Hays, equerry to Napoleon III., relates the 
following : " In 1845, a gray mare accomplished this 
match. Harnessed to a travelling tilbury, she started 
from Bernay at the same time as the mail carrier 
from Rouen to Bordeaux, and arrived before him at 
Alenqon; having made fifty-five and three fifths 
miles, over a hilly and difficult road, in four hours 
and twenty-four minutes." 

Another case vouched for by M. du Hays is thus 
reported : " A gray mare, seven years old, in 1864, 
harnessed to a tilbury, travelled fifty-eight miles and 
back on two consecutive days, going at a trot and 
without being touched by the whip. The following 
time was made : the first day, the distance was 
trotted in four hours, one minute, and thirty-five 
seconds ; the second day, in four hours, one minute, 
and thirty seconds. The last thirteen and tliree 
quarters miles were made in one hour, although at 
about the forty-first mile the mare was obliged to 
pass her stable to finish the distance." 



222 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

The finest Percheroii that I ever saw was a coal- 
black stallion, not of great size, high-headed, com- 
pactly built, with flowing mane and tail. This fellow 
had short, quick, smooth action, exactly like that of 
the Morgan roadster family, and he was said — doubt- 
less truly — to be capable of trotting ten miles an 
hour with ease. The resemblance between the Mor- 
gan and the Arabian horse has often been remarked 
upon, and it was honestly come by, for the English 
thoroughbred horse that sired the original Justin 
Morgan was of Arab descent. In shape, also, as well 
as in action, there is again a resemblance between the 
Morgans and the Percherons ; and so, on the whole, 
it seems not unreasonable to infer that the New Eng- 
land roadster and the French cart horse have a com- 
mon origin, both being descended, not wholly, but 
largely, from the " primitive horse," as the Arab is 
sometimes called. 

No other breed, except possibly English half-bred 
animals, equals the Percheron in ability to draw a 
heavy load at a fast pace. The post and diligence 
horses formerly used in France, as we have seen, were 
Percherons. From Boulogne to Paris the pace was 
ten miles an hour, although the road was paved. The 
harness and reins were of rope, and the hostlers in 
charge of the big gray horses that did the work were 
women. The coachers, before being put to, or after 
they had been taken out, would often engage in a 
fight in the inn-yard, biting and kicking one another 
viciously : and on these occasions the woman hostler, 
who was quite equal to the emergency, would quickly 
appear upon the scene, and, with a few well directed 
kicks from her wooden sabots, put an end to the com- 



CART HORSES. 223 

bat. The gray stallions that have for many years 
drawn the omnibuses of Paris were always of Per- 
cheron, or of the kindred Norman stock. 

It has frequently occurred to me that a family of 
superior road, and perhaps coach, horses might be 
developed by crossing the Percheron with the original 
Arab breed. Horses thus bred could not fail to be 
sound, tough, gentle, and, I should think, handsome. 
Certainly, if the Percheron is really derived from the 
Arab, such a cross would give size to the latter with- 
out introducing any element so foreign as to result in 
a hybrid, heterogeneous sort of animal. The cross 
between the thoroughbred and the cart horse does not 
usually turn out well ; occasionally, to be sure, the 
produce preserves the strength and size of one family 
with the action and courage of the other, some noted 
hunters having been bred in this way. More often, 
however, the half-bred horse of this description is a 
slab-sided, nerveless beast, of little good for any pur- 
pose. But between the Percheron and the Arab there 
is an affinity sufficient to prevent such a result from 
their union. In one instance, at least, this has been 
tried, Mr. Parker, of West Chester, Pennsylvania, 
having bred a colt by the Jennifer Arabian, out of 
Rosa Bonheur, an imported Percheron mare. The 
horse thus bred is described as "a wiry, handsome 
colt, who was sold to go to Oregon, where he 
proved a valuable sire." A cross between the Mor- 
gan and the Percheron ought to be equally good. 

Large numbers of Clydesdales, and Percherons in 
still greater abundance, have been imported to this 
country, but, unfortunately, the demand, especially at 
the West, has been for very big horses. The conse- 



224 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

quence is that the Percheron family has been cor- 
rupted on its native soil, Flemish and other inferior 
blood being introduced, in order to get the immense 
size wanted for the foreign, and particularly for the 
American market. Many of the Percherons win- 
ning prizes at our horse shows are of this type, — 
huge, overgrown, lethargic creatures, ungainly, slow, 
and wanting in endurance. The smaller horses of 
both the Clydesdale and Percheron breeds, the lat- 
ter especially, are almost invariably the better. 
M. du Hays gives the height of the true Percheron 
stallion as ranging from 14| to 16 hands, but the 
height of Percheron or so-called Percheron stallions 
imported to this country varies from 15^ to 17 hands. 
In weight they vary from 1,400 to 2,200 pounds ; 
the average being about 1,700. The mares average 
about 1,550 pounds in weight, and range from 15 to 
16f hands in height. The size and weight of the 
Clydesdale importations are about the same, whereas, 
if the best and purest of both breeds were imported, 
the Percherons would be the smaller. 

Fashion and caprice, instead of knowledge and judg- 
ment, are apt to determine the characteristics even 
of a cart horse. In the West, as I have indicated, 
elephantine animals are preferred ; and in NewYork 
the favorite cart horse is a big, rangy, high-standing 
beast. In Boston, on the other hand, shorter-legged, 
broad-chested, round-bodied, short-backed, quick-mov- 
ing horses are sought for ; and this type is undoubt- 
edly more efficient and lasting, besides being, as I 
think, a great deal more picturesque. 

Most of the cart horses used in this country are 
raised at the West, though many also come from 



CART HORSES. 225 

Pennsylvania. It is doubtful if they could be bred 
with prolit in New England, but seemingly it would be 
profitable for farmers at the East to buy Percheron, 
or half-bred Percheron, or Clydesdale colts at the age 
of two or three, work them moderately, and sell them 
again at the age of five or six. Under this system, 
the horses would come to the market in much harder, 
better condition than the corn-fed animals of the 
West, and consequently they would bring a better 
price. Upon the farm, the colt would be able to per- 
form enough labor to pay his way ; and the difference 
between his value at three and his value at six years 
of age would be clear profit. It is in this manner 
that Percherons are brought up in France ; the farm- 
ers who buy them from the breeders, farmers also, 
working them moderately until they are of an age 
to be sold. 

The enormous shire horses that are used in London 
as dray horses receive their education in the same 
way. "The traveller," says an English writer, "has 
probably wondered to see four of these enormous 
animals m a line before a plough, on no very heavy 
soil, and where two lighter horses would have been 
quite sufficient. The farmer is training them for 
their future destiny ; and he does right in not requir- 
ing the exertion of all their strength, for their bones 
are not yet perfectly formed nor their joints knit, and 
were he to urge them too severely he would probably 
injure and deform them. By the gentle and constant 
exercise of the plough he is preparing them for that 
continued and equable pull at the collar which is 
afterwards so necessary." 

In England it is customary to use heavy shire horses 

15 



226 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

ou the farm, and they are of an almost incredible 
slowness ; so slow are they, in fact, that William 
Day^ seems almost to be jusiiied m his assertion that 
agriculture in England might be revolutionized simply 
by increasing the efficiency of the farm horse. In 
that country, a team of horses and a man are consid- 
ered to have done a fair day's work if they have 
ploughed three quarters of an acre, and more than 
this is seldom, if ever, accomplished. In the United 
States, on the other hand, the ordinary stint is about 
an acre and a half: just double what it is in England. 
Day estimates that in drawing a load of a ton the 
English farm horse walks at the rate of one mile and 
a half an hour, whereas a coach horse, in a fast coach, 
drawing exactly the same weight, (but not covering 
more than nine miles in a day,) travels at the rate of 
eleven miles an hour. A more exact comparison can 
be made with van or furniture-wagon horses. Four 
of these will travel twenty-three miles in a day, haul- 
ing six tons, at the rate of three miles per hour : just 
double the speed of the farm horse, that draws one 
ton instead of a ton and a half, (which would be the 
share of a van horse in a team,) and goes fourteen 
miles instead of twenty-three. 

In ploughing, the cart or shire horse walks even 
slower, doing but one and one fourth miles in the 
hour, and this although the draught is estimated at 
only three and three fourths hundredweight. " Is it 
any wonder, then," exclaims the writer whom I have 
just mentioned, " that we should so often see the poor 
creatures with staring coats and shivering with cold 
when dawdling along against this mighty draught, 

1 The Horse : how to Breed and Rear Him. 



CART HORSES. 227 

or that the ploughman, wrapped up in a top-coat that 
might resist the rigors of a Siberian winter, creeps 
after them, as frigid and benumbed an object as the 
animals themselves ! " 

He also tells the following incident, vouching for 
its truth : " A farmer who lived at Longstock, near 
Stockbridge, many years ago, was one day walking 
about his farm with a facetious friend. They noticed 
a plough, with horses and man, in the middle of a field, 
and the friend suggested that it was standing still. 
The farmer declared it was moving, and a dispute 
arose and ran high between them as to which was the 
case. To settle the question, the}^ hit upon the ex- 
pedient of getting a fold-shore, and setting it up in a 
line with the horses' heads and some conspicuous ob- 
ject beyond. But the ploughman now observed them, 
and, suspecting what they were about, became trou- 
bled in conscience, and whipped up his horses, which 
then quickened their pace, so that the fact that they 
were really moving became obvious ; and," says the 
writer, " we may see examples of the same sluggish- 
ness every day of our lives." 

In the United States, in the eastern part at least, 
the farm horse can hardly be called a cart horse, for 
he is comparatively light in build. It is in the city 
that we find the cart horse in his noblest form and 
highest condition, and there he will doubtless con- 
tinue, until the warehouses crumble to dust and grass 
grows in the highway. The car horse is fast disap- 
pearing ; and every lover of dumb animals will re- 
joice that this should be so, for the electric current 
that invisibly takes his place has no capacity for 
suffering. 



228 



ROA«D, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



The heaving flanks, the tortured mouth, the nervous 
eye, of the car horse, — the excruciating sound of his 
iron-shod hoofs slipj^ing and clashing over the pave- 
ment in a vain attempt to start a heavy load, — these 
will soon be things of the past ; and the animal that 
was but one of a thousand, that never received a 
kind word or a caress, that sweated and strained and 
wore himself out in the service of a heartless and 
impersonal master, will have been released by Science. 
He will soon become but a memory in those very 
streets where the cart horse, more fortunate and more 
lovable animal, seems destined to walk for centuries 
yet in proud security. 









IX. 



FIRE HORSES. 



EVERYBODY knows that a fire-engine horse is 
a large, strongly built, handsome animal, with 
a broad forehead and an intelligent eye. He wears 
neither check nor blinders, and is never blanketed, 
except when he stands out in the street ; but his coat 
is nicely groomed, his hoofs are well oiled ; he is 
usually in the pink of condition ; his social affections 
and faculties are highly cultivated ; interested looks 
follow him when he takes his daily exercise ; and, 
seen in full progress to a fire, he is an object of re- 
spect and admiration, almost of terror. 

His work is different from that of any other horse 
in the world, and it requires a peculiar combination 
of qualities. The fire steed must be able to draw an 
extremely heavy load at a smart gallop ; in short, his 



230 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

function is that of a running draft horse. Engines, 
with the men who ride on them, usually weigh about 
8,000 pounds, or four tons ; some are a thousand 
pounds lighter ; others as much, or nearly as much 
heavier. The chemical engines are less ponderous, 
varying from 2,500 (this kind employs but one horse) 
to 7,500 pounds. The hose carriages attached to the 
hre engines, and drawn by one horse, are, as a rule, 
about half the weight of the engines, but sometimes 
much more. Two-wheel carts were formerly used 
for this purpose, but they have been superseded, in 
Boston and in most other cities, by four-wheel wag- 
ons, which, though not so picturesque, are much easier 
for the horse, inasmuch as none of the weight comes 
upon his back. 

Hook and ladder trucks, with their men, vary in 
weight from 4,350 to 10,600 pounds, the trucks which 
reach the last mentioned figures being hauled by three 
horses, harnessed abreast. This form of "hitch" 
is also coming in use for the heavier class of en- 
gines, or " steamers," as they are called. The engines 
usually fit the street car tracks, which is a great ad- 
vantage ; whereas the hook and ladder trucks are too 
broad for this, and they are so extremely long that a 
large part of the weight is far from the horses, which 
of course makes it more difficult to haul ; but, again, 
the load is more " springy," not so dead as that of 
the engine, and the two kinds of apparatus are, on the 
whole, about equally difficult to pull. Some of the 
longest ladder trucks, as most of my readers know, 
are provided with a steering contrivance for the 
hind wheels, so that the helmsman, who sits imme- 
diately above the axle, is able to turn them sharply 



FIRE HORSES. 231 

in going around a corner. By this device the neces- 
sity of a wide turn is avoided, and the driver is 
able to " cut " the corners as closely as if he had an 
ordinary length of vehicle behind him. 

Sometimes a tough spiral spring, made of steel, is 
inserted in the trace of a fire horse's harness, near the 
whilfletree, the object being to lessen the strain at 
starting. This ingenious device enables the horses 
to exert their strength against a yielding connection 
instead of a dead weight, — a certain momentum be- 
ing acquired before the whole load moves. On the 
same principle, the couplings which unite a train of 
loaded cars must be somewhat loose, in order that the 
locomotive may start the train. Motion is then com- 
municated from the first car to the second, and so on, 
as the spectator readily perceives ; whereas, if all the 
couplings were tense, the whole train would have to 
start at once. The spring just described might be 
used with all draft horses. 

In the city proper, where most of the runs are 
short, the whole distance is usually covered at a gal- 
lop, unless some hill or obstruction intervenes •, and 
this performance tries the animal of whom it is re- 
quired through and through, so that if there be a 
weak spot in him it is soon discovered. In the first 
place, he must be big and heavy. Boston fire horses 
vary from 1,200 to 1,600 pounds, — very few indeed 
quite reaching the maximum, and most of them 
weighing about 1,400 pounds, — rather less than more. 
But the fire horse must also be active, as well as big 
and strong ; he must have good feet, good wind, and, 
finally, to execute his ordinary task, he must be in 
hard condition. When the horses are first bought, 



232 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

they are almost invariably fat and soft ; but they are 
immediately assigned to a station, without any train- 
ing or preparation. Consequently, they must be hu- 
mored, and, if need be, restrained somewhat, during 
their first months of service. Should they be driven 
fast at this time, they might easily become " touched 
in the wind," or otherwise disabled ; and this some- 
times happens through careless or unskilful driving. 
The best and strongest horse in the world, if out of 
condition, cannot safely be called upon for an ex- 
traordinary effort. (There is a hint here, by the way, 
for fat or elderly people who persist in running for 
trains.) 

Elsewhere, the weight of fire horses is commonly 
about the same as it is in Boston. In Cambridge, in 
Lynn (which has an excellent department), and in 
Providence, they have none over 1,400 pounds ; in 
Chicago the limit is given as 1,450 ; but in Brooklyn 
comparatively light horses are used, their weight 
varying from 1,150 to 1,350 pounds ; and the veteri- 
nary surgeon attached to this department states that 
he prefers those approaching the minimum. 

As a rule, short-legged and short-backed horses are 
the best for drawing engines. It is indeed a general 
equine principle that " weight-pullers " should be 
formed in this way : they are more nimble, take 
shorter steps, and recover themselves more easily, 
than longer-legged and longer-striding animals. The 
trotters who make fast records to skeleton wagons 
(much heavier than sulkies) are almost invariably of 
such a construction. I have been told of a pair of 
tough roans built thus, and weighing not much more 
than 1,200 pounds, who could pull a heavy engine at 



FIRE HORSES. 233 

wonderful speed ; but, unfortunately, the near horse 
had a habit of balking on the threshold of the engine- 
house, when harnessed for a fire, which so delayed 
the apparatus that his subsequent speed did not make 
up for the time lost, and he was retired to private 
life. 

One of the best, oldest, and lightest engine horses 
in Boston is also built on this model. He is a rather 
plain brown fellow, weighing only about 1,175 pounds, 
with a strong, short back, splendid shoulder, and stout 
limbs, with big knees and short cannon-bones. His 
expression is extremely gentle and intelligent. At 
present he serves as the off horse on a chemical en- 
gine, his mate being a handsome dapple gray, with 
white flowing tail. The brown horse is reckoned by 
the enginemen to be twenty-two years old, having 
been in the service for many years. I suspect that 
there is some exaggeration in this statement, but he 
is certainly an old horse. His mate is ten, and con- 
siderably larger, but the two step well together, and 
make a fast team. Their driver assured me that he 
had once given the protective company a fair beat- 
ing in a race to a fire. 

Of the gray horse, a good, and I believe, on investi- 
gation, a true story is told. In the same building 
with the chemical engine is an ordinary steam-en- 
gine, the two " houses " being connected by hallways. 
At one time the gray horse was transferred to the 
other engine, and put in one of the stalls behind it. 
In the middle of the first night after this change had 
been made, an alarm of fire was sounded. The steam- 
enginemen tumbled out of bed, rushed down to the 
engine floor, and found one horse standing in his 



234 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

place by the pole, ready to have the collar fastened 
about his neck ; but the gray was missing. They 
looked in his stall, but it was vacant ; " neither hide 
nor hair of him " could be found, and it seemed clear 
that the animal had been stolen by some bold thief. 
Presently, however, a horse was heard moving about 
in the adjoining house, and it proved to be one be- 
longing to the chemical engine, which had already 
gone to the fire. He was of course immediately put 
in the place of the missing beast, and the engine 
finally got under way. The fact was, that when the 
alarm sounded, and the doors of the stable flew open, 
the gray had gone to his old place on the chemical 
engine, and pushed aside the horse already standing 
there, who, finding that he was not wanted, returned 
to his stall. The men, in the hurry of the moment, 
harnessed such animals as offered themselves, and 
were off without discovering the mistake. 

There is a reason why ladder truck horses should 
be taller than engine horses : the apparatus which 
they draw is at a much higher level from the ground 
than is the bulk of an engine, and consequently a 
low-standing animal would waste part of his efforts 
in pulling downward instead of pulling forward. 
Some ladder truck horses are shaped in one impor- 
tant respect like Maud S., Sunol, and other fast trot- 
ters and runners, namely, higher at the rump than 
at the withers, and with long hind legs. This is not 
considered a good conformation for a cart horse ; but 
it seems to answer well where, as in the case of a 
ladder truck, horses are required which have height 
and speed as well as strength. 

Such being the kind of horse needed for fire en- 



FIRE HORSES, 235 

gines, let us now visit a new recruit in his quarters. 
The weather being warm, the doors of the house are 
open, a rope being stretched across the entrance. Di- 
rectly in front of us stands the engine, a polished 
mass of copper and nickel, with scarlet wheels. The 
driver's seat is a small box, just big enough to hold 
him, and behind it, rolled up separately, are strapped 
the blankets. The harness is suspended from the 
ceiling in such a manner that it can be let down when 
the horses stand under it. Back of the engine, and 
some yards distant as a rule, a partition, composed 
chiefly of doors, runs across the house. Behind this 
partition are the stalls ; the horses facing the engine, 
and the front of each stall being a door, with a win- 
dow in it. Bridles are worn night and day, the bits 
being slipped out when the animals eat their oats, but 
kept in while they chew their hay. Some horses, 
whose mouths are tender, are bridled, in the stable, 
with the bit hanging loose. 

Now, then, we will suppose that an alarm of fire 
strikes, the hour being midnight. The horses are 
lying down, out of sight and fast asleep ; the men 
are upstairs in bed, — all save one, who dozes in a 
chair beside those mysterious telegraphic instruments 
grouped in a corner near the front door. The gas 
burns brightly, but there is not a sign of animation 
about the place. It is all so miraculously clean, so 
neat, well ordered, burnished, and polished, so nearly 
deserted, so absolutely quiescent, and yet so bril- 
liantly lighted, that it appears rather like an illusion 
than a reality. The engine might be the huge and 
magnificent toy of a giant. It looks much too fine 
for real use. 



236 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

But, as we were just sa^ang, an alarm sounds, and 
the scene changes. In a corner of the ceiling, near 
the front door, is a circular opening, through which, 
rising from the floor, passes a shining brass pole. 
When the men are called out, they throw themselves 
on this pole, and come down like a flash of lightning ; 
the feet of the second man almost touching the head 
of the first, and so on. The horses scramble on their 
legs, the doors in front of them fly open, and out 
they rush, their heavy iron-shod hoofs thundering 
over the floor. -Each horse goes to his proper place; 
the driver, from his seat, lets down the harness ; two 
or three men standing at the pole snap the collars to- 
gether, fasten the reins to the bits, and off they go. 
There is nothing more to be done : the girths are not 
used in running to a fire ; the traces are already at- 
tached to the whiftletrees and the pole-straps to the 
collars, so that the fastening of two collars and four 
reins constitutes the harnessing. Often, perhaps com- 
monly, the horses are harnessed and everything is 
ready for a start before the gong has finished telling 
the number of the box. Half a minute is about the 
maximum time for companies in a first class depart- 
ment to make ready and leave the house ; and the 
ordinary time is, I believe, fifteen or twenty seconds. 
The fire marshal of the Chicago department informs 
me that, " on the test of a certain engine, with men 
in bed and horses in stalls, the hind wheels of the 
apparatus crossed the threshold in eleven seconds." 
Por the Brooklyn department the time is given as 
" from four to eight seconds, according to distance of 
horses from the engine." 

To teach a green nag to come out of his stall at the 



FIRE HORSES. 23T 

signal, and range himself alongside the pole, is not so 
dilficult as might be imagined. We will suppose that 
a span of new horses are assigned to a certain engine, 
the old pair, as is the custom, being taken away at the 
same time. The surroundings are strange and more 
or less terrible to them, but they are handled very 
gently and carefully, and gradually lose their fears. 
The schooling begins at once, the driver being as- 
sisted by the other men. The ordinary signal is given, 
as if for a lire ; the stall doors open ; the horses are 
led out, put in position, harnessed, and in a few min- 
utes led back ; and then the process is repeated per- 
haps half a dozen times. Great pains are taken that 
the animals shall not strike against anything, or by 
any means become frightened. The unusual spectacle 
of a harness suspended in the air is apt to disturb them 
at first, but they are led slowly up to it, induced to 
smell of it, to inspect it on all sides, and thus to learn 
that it is perfectly harmless. In the same way they 
are made familiar with all the other objects about 
them, being continually patted and encouraged. 

The chief traits of the horse are the great strength 
of his memory, especially of his faculty of association, 
and his timidity. The fireman's task, therefore, is 
first to convince his pupil, by gentle treatment, that 
no harm threatens him, and then to establish a con- 
nection in his mind between the proper signal, the 
opening of the stall door, and a progress thence to his 
station by the engine pole. After being led to their 
positions what it is thought may prove a sufficient 
number of times, the horses are allowed to come out at 
the signal of their own accord, a man standing behind 
to touch them up a little if they do not start promptly 



238 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

when the gong sounds and the doors open. Of course 
no two horses learn with equal rapidity, and the dif- 
ference between them in this respect is greater than 
might be supposed. Two weeks constitute about the 
average period of instruction, during which time two 
or three lessons a day are given : but horses have 
been known to learn in one lesson; and others, 
again, have been months in arriving at the same 
proficiency. 

A pair of gray horses, newly purchased for an 
engine in Boston, were led out three times in the 
manner just described. They were then left to them- 
selves : the gong sounded, the stall doors opened, and 
the pair trotted out, each going to his place alongside 
the pole. They had caught the idea at once. These 
horses are remarkable not only for intelligence, but 
for strength and speed. They are both, and the off 
one especially, of a type different from that of any 
other fire horses that I have seen, being very tall (the 
off one is seventeen hands), rangy, slightly wasp- 
waisted, and having fine, thin necks, and small, well- 
bred heads. These nags are built after the fashion 
of the once famous Conestoga horses of Pennsylvania. 
They are great gallopers, and the hose-wagon steed has 
hard work to keep up with them ; but this too is a re- 
markable animal. He is one of the oldest horses in 
the department, having served ten years, and being, 
naturally, a little stiff in the legs ; but his strength is 
so great and his courage so good that even these pow- 
erful, flying grays cannot draw away from him. He 
is a big brown horse, with a great shoulder, the best 
of short legs, and a noble countenance. His original 
cost was the unusually large sum of ^450, but the bar- 



FIRE HORSES. 239 

gain has proved a good one for the city. Old as he 
is, being sixteen or seventeen years at least, he is 
thought to have made the best run of his life a few 
weeks ago, galloping all the way to the fire, a distance 
of a mile or more. A little blood trickled from his 
nostrils when he pulled up behind the engine, but 
otherwise he seemed none the worse for the immense 
exertion. 

Another big horse, of the greyhound type already 
described, — that is, having long hind legs and stand- 
ing higher at the rump than at the withers, — was 
four months in learning the business. He is a gray, 
with a long, rather coarse head, and small " mouse " 
ears out of proportion to his size, for he weighs 1,380 
pounds ; but this evidently mongrel beast is not al- 
together devoid of intelligence, being steady enough 
on the street to serve as a leader when three horses 
are used, and on one occasion, when the whifJletree 
fell on his legs, he refrained from running away. 
This horse is used with a ladder truck, and his edu- 
cation was finally accomplished by fencing in his 
path from the stall to the pole with ladders, a method 
often employed. 

Sometimes it is not want of mind, but nervousness, 
which makes a fire horse slow to learn the trade, just 
as some nervous children have difficulty in applying 
their minds. Such was the case with Peter, a well- 
bred black horse, used for many years in Boston with 
a ladder truck. Peter was a noble, strong, spirited 
animal, and, once taught, he became as prompt and 
trustworthy as any horse in the department. On one 
occasion, shortly after his purchase, Peter, exasper- 
ated by the schooling, broke away from his instructors, 



240 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

jumped cleanly through an open window without 
touching the sash, and ran down the street in search 
of amusement. At another time, while waiting in 
the blacksmith shop, his shoes having been taken off, 
but not yet replaced, Peter heard the twelve o'clock 
alarm strike. This he knew indicated the hour of 
his dinner, and accordingly Peter made off, without 
saying " By your leave " to the smith, and presently 
appeared at the ladder-house door, neighing for ad- 
mission. 

This fine animal met with a sad fate not long ago. 
While running to a fire, he came in collision with one 
of the protective wagons, and his leg was broken in 
two places, so that he had to be shot where he fell 
in the street. Something even worse happened sev- 
eral years ago to a fire-engine horse in Boston. He 
was struck by the pole of another engine, which came 
out of its house just as the first engine dashed by; 
the force of the blow, unknown to his driver, broke 
the animal's leg, but he kept on, travelling, of course, 
on three legs only, and pulling his share of the im- 
mense weight behind him, till the place of the fire 
was readier], nearly or quite one quarter of a mile 
further. Then the poor beast dropped to the ground, 
never to rise again. The fire horse is subject to ac- 
cidents like these, but we must remember that the 
fireman's danger is greater yet. 

It happens occasionally that a horse is bought who 
proves to be altogether too nervous for the business : 
he is in a continual state of tension, will not eat unless 
taken out of his stall, and is so worried with appre- 
hension of an alarm that it is impossible to use him 
as a fire horse. In a few other cases, the nervousness, 



FIRE HORSES. 241 

though not so extreme, is sufficient to disturb the 
animal's health, to impair his digestion, to prevent 
his* taking the needed amount of rest, so that event- 
ually he too, after being doctored perhaps for an 
imaginary disease, is transferred to some more peace- 
ful occupation. 

Now that we have seen how a fire-engine horse is 
instructed, and where he lives, it might be interest- 
ing to know in what manner his daily life is ordered. 
He takes breakfast, in Boston, at five or half past, 
in some houses as late as six o'clock, — the meal con- 
sisting, as a rule, of two quarts of oats. After break- 
fast, he receives a thorough grooming, and about ten 
o'clock he goes out to walk for an hour, with an 
occasional trot, one horse of a pair being ridden and 
the other led. At half past eleven or twelve he has 
dinner, — two quarts of oats again, — which also is the 
allowance for supper, at half past five or six. Some 
old and some delicate horses have nine quarts of oats 
per day. Usually a bran mash is given once a week, 
and in some houses a little bran is fed every day. In 
the afternoon the horse has another hour of exercise, 
supposing that no fire has occurred. Hay is allowed 
at night only, and in most of the houses it is fed from 
the floor, so that the horse can eat it while lying 
down. For several reasons this method is far better 
than feeding from a rack, especially for the fire horse, 
who takes a long while to eat his hay, inasmuch as the 
bit remains in his mouth. In most cities the grain 
allowance is about the same as it is in Boston, al- 
though in Chicago the horses are fed just twice as 
much, twelve quarts per day, and in Brooklyn, as I 
am informed, the allowance varies from twelve to 

16 



242 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

eighteen quarts, which is excessive. In Chicago, it 
woukl seem, the lire horses do more work than is re- 
quired in Boston. Ten companies in the heart of 
that city average thirty-six runs per month ; whereas 
in Boston the average varies, according to the situa- 
tion, from eight or ten to twenty-five runs per montli. 
In the suburbs many companies do not go out more 
than once a week, on the average. The hour for bed- 
ding down varies from half past five to eight p. m., at 
the discretion of the driver. It would be better to 
make this duty obligatory at the earlier hour, and 
better yet if the bedding were left under the horses 
by day as well as by night, especially in the case of 
those companies which do the most work. The more 
a horse lies down, the longer his legs and feet are 
likely to endure ; and by the supply of a soft and 
perpetual couch he can often be induced to lengthen 
his hours of repose. 

At eight p. M., it is the custom all over the city to 
call the horses out and harness them to the engine, 
and at this time visitors are apt to drop in. Both 
firemen and horses are always well known in the vi- 
cinity, and many civilities pass between the neighbors 
and the occupants, human and equine, of the engine- 
houses. The children especially are friends with the 
horses, calling them by their names, and often treat- 
ing them to candy and other luxuries. In fact, when- 
ever a fire-engine horse is introduced to a stranger, he 
expects to receive some dainty, and will poke his nose 
in the visitor's hands and pockets ; nor is he easily 
discouraged by failure to find anything, being evi- 
dently convinced that nobody would be quite so mean 
as to enter his stable without bringing at least a lump 
of sugar or the fraction of an apple. 



FIRE HORSES. 243 

There is a handsome gray horse in the Central 
Station, in Boston, who has a great liking for ice, and, 
when out for exercise, he can never be persuaded to 
pass an ice wagon without first thrusting his head in 
behind and helping himself to a small piece. It is 
needless to say that the firemen make great jjets of 
their four-footed companions, and are a little inclined 
to exaggerate their good qualities, — " the finest pair 
in the department" being discovered in almost every 
engine-house. There is, too, a favorite horse at each 
station, — not always the strongest or handsomest, but 
the most affectionate, docile, and sociable ; and the 
visitor is always taken iirst to this animal's stall, 
whose virtues are thereupon extolled with generous 
enthusiasm. 

From December to April every engine-house in 
Boston contains an equine guest, as an extra horse for 
making up a "spike team," in case the streets are 
blocked with snow. Usually this horse is not owned 
by the department, but is loaned by an ice company or 
a contractor, — his keep being reckoned as payment 
for his services. The new-comer does not serve as a 
leader : one of the regular team is put in that post, 
the extra horse taking the other's place at the pole. 
Some of the engine horses show great intelligence 
and discretion as leaders. On one occasion a spike 
team was dashing through a narrow street, where 
there was barely room to get between a wagon on one 
side and a light carryall, with women and children in 
it, on the other. The driver found that he had no 
control over his leader, and feared a bad accident; 
but the horse threaded his way so carefully and accu- 
rately that the engine swept past the carriage without 



244 ROAD, TKACK, AND STABLE. 

touching it. When the engine stopped, it appeared 
th:it the leader's bit was hanging loose, and that he 
had served as his own driver. 

This same animal, a big bay horse, is also cred- 
ited with some clever work in his own intei'est. Im- 
mediately in the rear of his stall was a slide where 
the oats came down, as he had full opportunity to 
observe at feeding time. But how could he get them ? 
He was confined in his stall, not of course by a hal- 
ter, but by a rope stretched behind him, and fastened 
by an ordinary open hook. First, he discovered that, 
with some difficulty, he could turn in the stall far 
enough to get hold of the rope with his teeth, and 
after many attempts he succeeded in unhooking it. 
It was then an easy task to step across to the slide, 
pull it open with his teeth, and thus set running the 
reservoir of grain above. Two or three times he was 
found, after achieving this feat, standing in a deluge 
of oats, and industriously stowing them away in a 
compartment furnished by nature. But the firemen 
checkmated him by putting on the rope a snap hook, 
closed by a spring ; and there it may be seen, at once 
proving the occurrence and preventing its repetition. 

There is another sagacious leader, called John, one 
of a span of large, handsome, dark, mottled grays, used 
on a ladder truck. These are among the very finest 
horses in the Boston department : they are strong and 
symmetrical, with small, clean-cut heads, large eyes, 
and courageous but gentle expression. John, espe- 
cially, is as kind as a dog, a favorite with the women 
and children of the neghborhood, a great pet of the 
firemen, and quiet as a mouse in the stable, but on the 
street full of life and animation, and playful enough 



FIRE HORSES. 245 

to have thrown, at one time and another, everybody 
who has ridden him to exercise, except the captain. 
John's sense of discipline is so strong that he draws 
the line there. While used as a leader his stall is 
different from the usual one ; and when on one occa- 
sion, having occupied it for some weeks, the third 
horse was dispensed w^th, and John was put back in 
his old quarters, he rightly and sagaciously concluded 
that his former place on the engine should also be re- 
sumed, and accordingly, at the next alarm, he ran to 
the pole, instead of going in front. 

The finest engine horse that I have seen is, I think, 
the near one of a dark gray team used in Boston. 
This is what horsemen call "a big little 'un," that is, 
a stout animal on short legs. He is a comparatively 
small horse, standing 15 hands 3 inches, and weighing 
1,320 pounds ; but he is big where bigness is required. 
He has a broad chest, a tremendous shoulder, deep 
lungs, a big barrel, a short back, and strong hind 
quarters. His legs are flat and clean, his feet of just 
the right size, and he has a broad forehead and an in- 
telligent eye. Possibly his shoulder is a little too 
upright, and there is a suspicion of hollowness in his 
back, but otherwise he seemed to me an ideal engine 
horse. His mate is handsomer in some respects, and 
more gentle, but a trifle too long in the back and 
legs. 

Beside the engine, hose-wagon, and ladder truck 
horses, there are others, used to haul coal and sup- 
plies, to carry men and tools for the repair of wires, 
etc. These are chiefly old, partly broken down ani- 
mals, no longer fit for the hard and rapid work of 
running to fires. Then there are smaller nags, weigh- 



246 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



iiig from 950 to 1,050 pounds, employed by the engi- 
neers in their light wagons. These horses, especially 
such as are used by the chief engineer, get more 
practice in running to lires than any others, and they 
become very clever in picking their way through a 
crowded street, breaking into a gallop whenever they 
see an open space before them, and pulling up promptly 
to avoid collisions. The tough, intelligent, short- 
stepping ]\Iorgan is excellently adapted for this pur- 
pose, and one of that breed has been used for eight 
years past by the veterinary surgeon connected with 
the Boston department. Another, used by a district 
engineer, is of about the same size and pattern, and of 
the same gamy disposition. 

The protective (insurance) wagon steeds, though 
not, strictly speaking, belonging to the fire depart- 
ment, should not be disregarded in this account. 
They show more " qualit}^ " than fire-engine horses, 
weigh less (about 1150 pounds), stand higher m pro- 
portion, and look like powerful coach horses. There 
are two protective wagons in Boston : one in the heart 
of the city, which weighs, with the men, about 7,800 
pounds ; and the other, which is much lighter, at the 
South End. One or both of these wagons respond to 
every alarm of fire in the city, so that the horses 
attached to them do a great deal of work. On a cer- 
tain Fourth of July, one of these companies was 
called out on nineteen different occasions in the 
twenty-four hours ; the horses not becoming cool 
enough throughout that time to be fed, and being 
supported by draughts of oat meal and water. 

The arrangements in the protective houses differ, 
for the worse, from those of the fire department. The 



FIRE HORSES. 247 

stalls are in the main room where the wagon is kept, 
and at the back of the building is an entrance, the 
doors of which are apt to be open. The animals are 
thus exposed to strong and frequent draughts, very 
bad for horseflesh ; and they are also continually an- 
noyed by the noise, by the glare of lights kept burn- 
ing all night, and by the coming and going of visitors 
and officials. The object of this arrangement is, of 
course, to save time ; but if the horses stood six feet 
farther back, and were protected by a partition, prob- 
ably only one or two seconds more would be required 
to bring them to the pole. Moreover, they are so 
often out at night that the suggestion already made 
in regard to engine horses applies with more force to 
those engaged in this service, namely, that bedding 
should be left under them at all times. In the South 
End house the stalls are open at both ends, so that 
the horses stand in a thoroughfare for cold breezes ; 
and this was formerly the case m the other station. 
In the latter house there were for eight years a very 
line pair of grays, who were sold, not for unsoundness, 
but because they were worn out by want of rest. 
One of them also became vicious. The fact is, that, 
with the possible exception of man, the horse is the 
most nervous animal in the world, and the least able to 
endure continual and multiplied annoyances. These 
grays were last seen drawing a hack, and they have 
probably long since passed to some lower and more 
painful stage of equine degradation. 

Connected with a fire department there is usually 
a veterinary hospital, and in Boston this is situated 
on Tremont Street; being part of the building in 
which a ladder truck is stationed. It consists of a 



248 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

Single box stall and several straight stalls, but the 
health of the horses is looked after so carefully that 
these accommodations are suificient. When I visited 
the place it contained but two patients. One was a 
fine gray engine horse, who, while running to a lire, 
came in collision with a " tow " horse, and was thrown 
down. His knees and hind legs were badly cut, but 
none of these injuries proved serious, and he was 
soon on the road to recovery. The other patient, also 
an engine horse, was suffering from a bad leg, caused 
partly by improper shoeing, and partly by the state 
of his blood. With the exception of these two, all 
the horses in the department, numbering about two 
hundred, were in working order, — an excellent 
showing. 

Fire horses, as a rule, give out first and chiefly in 
their feet. Standing so much as they do on wooden 
floors, their feet have a tendency to become dry and 
hard, but this is counteracted by a permanent stuffing 
of tar and oakum, lield in place by a leather pad. 
Almost all the fire horses of Boston wear these pads, 
and usually on the hind as well as on the fore feet. 
In other cities, the same result is accomplished by 
periodical stuffing of the feet with some one of the 
many materials which horsemen use for this purpose. 

The worst trouble, however, arises from the con- 
cussion produced in the foot by the hard paving-stones 
of the city. This is bad enough for any horse, but 
especially bad for the fire horse, because, owing to his 
great weight, his galloping speed, and his heavy load, 
he pounds his feet with tremendous force. Often a 
pair of engine horses whose feet have begun to give 
out are transferred to a suburban station, where, the 



FIRE HORSES. 249 

roads being less hard and alarms less frequent, thej- 
go on very well for some years longer. Great pains 
are taken with the shoeing, which is under the direct 
charge of the accomplished Vet employed by the 
department. Horses used in the city proper wear 
corks on all their feet, to give them a better grip on 
slippery pavements, car-tracks, etc. ; but in the suburbs 
corks are dispensed with, the shoes without them 
having this advantage, — that they let the foot down 
lower, so that it supports the weight of the horse in a 
more natural position. The frog of the foot is in- 
tended by nature to lessen the concussion by receiving 
part of the blow itself ; but with an ordinary shoe, 
especially with one having corks, this function of the 
frog is very imperfectly discharged, the frog being 
kept off the ground by the shoe. What the city fire 
horses (perhaps I might say, what horses in general) 
need is some method of slioeing which will protect 
the wall of the foot, and at the same time allow the 
frog to come in contact with the ground.^ 

Fire horses also throw their shoes very frequently, 
catching them in car-tracks and other projections. In 
fact, a team can hardly go to a fire without losing at 
least one shoe among them; and the continual re- 
shoeing tends, of course, to wear away the hoof. It 
is desirable, therefore, to make it grow as fast as pos- 
sible, and for this purpose it is kept well oiled. Ev- 

1 Possibly this result might be accomplished satisfactorily by 
the Charlier process, which consists in channelling the wall of the 
foot at its base, and inserting in the circular groove so formed a 
steel shoe. By this method the walls of the foot are protected as 
with the ordinary shoe, but, the foot not being raised from the 
ground, the frog comes into play, just as if no shoe at all were 
worn. 



250 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

ery driver has his own specific, upon the peculiar and 
wonderful properties of which he will descant with 
much enthusiasm ; but the best of them is probably 
not more efficacious than a rag tied about the coronet, 
and kept well moistened with cold water. 

Despite the severity of their occasional labors and 
the hard usage to which their feet are subjected, fire 
horses in Boston last a considerable time. They are 
bought, usually, at the age of five or six years (cost- 
ing about ♦'^325), and they remain in service, on the 
average, about seven or eight years. In other cities 
their duration and cost are nearly the same. In Cam- 
bridge, where few of the streets are paved, fire horses 
are said to last from seven to ten years ; but in Brook- 
lyn this period is put as low as six years, — about the 
length of time that a car horse endures. 

In Boston there are at least half a dozen veterans 
of ten years' standing, and some who have served as 
fire horses even longer than that. The old hose-cart 
horse of whom I have spoken already has a record 
of at least ten years' service. There is another sea- 
soned Houyhnhnm, — a dark chestnut, of the same 
heavy, low-standing shape, who has seen twelve win- 
ters in the business. About five years ago it was 
thought that he ought to have an easier life, and ac- 
cordingly he was transferred to an outlying station, 
where fires seldom occur. But on the occasion of the 
first alarm to which he responded the old fellow bolt- 
ed, and made a complete wreck of the hose-cart by 
dashing it against a stone wall. This was his protest 
at being removed from the house to which he had 
become accustomed, and from the society of his fa- 
miliar friends, human and equine ; and so he was put 



firp: horses. 251 

back in the old place, where he still remains in full 
employment. He is reckoned to be seventeen years 
old, and he has a contemporary, also a hose horse, 
who entered the department in the same year. 

This is Grief, so named because of his melancholy 
aspect. He has a way of standing with his fore legs 
wide apart, his head hanging down between, and a 
doleful expression of the face. A visitor, who saw 
him once in this attitude, remarked that he would 
make a good " image of Grief," and the name seemed 
so appropriate that it was adopted by common consent. 
" Grief " is duly inscribed m large letters over his 
stall, and as Grief he is known through the depart- 
ment and to all the neighbors. Grief is a remarkable 
horse ; in color a rich mottled brown, and in shape 
much resembling the other old horses already de- 
scribed. He has a massive, well formed shoulder, 
strong, straight fore legs, powerful hind quarters (too 
long a cannon-bone, however), a good neck, slightly 
arched, a rather intelligent, clean-cut head, but mulish 
ears. His peculiarity is a philosophical, phlegmatic 
disposition. He has a hearty appetite and a sound 
digestion, but he never shows the least impatience for 
his meals, (^ther horses paw and neigh when they 
hear the premonitory rattle of the oat-box, but Grief 
never betrays the least sign of curiosity or of interest. 
The children of the vicinity often come to this house 
to give the horses candy, and the span of bays who 
draw the engine always recognize their benefactors, 
and will follow them about the stable. But Grief, 
though glad enough to be fed, never takes the slightest 
notice of any visitor beyond swallowing what is of- 
fered to him. He sleeps a great deal, ruminates still 



252 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

more, and allows nothing outside of business to dis- 
turb or excite him ; and hence, no doubt, his excellent 
state of preservation. 

But Grief awakes when the alarm strikes. How- 
ever long or steep the road, however fast may gallop 
the stout young bays in front, he always keeps up 
with the engine. The strength and nervous force 
that he accumulates in the stable Grief expends lav- 
ishly on the way to a fire. His eye is then full of 
spirit; his expanded nostrils display the red glow 
within ; his neck curves to the task ; his splendid 
shoulder strains against the collar. He looks twice 
the size of the horse that was dozing in his stall a few 
minutes before. Arrived at the scene of action, he 
draws up as close as possible to the engine. Grief 
likes to get where the sparks fall in showers about 
bim, and there he will stand, shaking his head to dis- 
lodge the burning particles, pleased with the shrieks 
and roar of the engine, with the shouts of the men, 
with the smoke and flame of the conflagration. At a 
great fire in Boston on Thanksgiving day, 1889, the 
engine which he followed was burned within twenty- 
five minutes after it left the house ; but Grief stood 
by it, firm as a rock, till the flames came near and he 
was hurried away by his driver. 

The patriarch of the department is, however, not 
Grief, but another horse, stationed in East Boston, and 
called Old Joe. His age is variously estimated, but 
I gather that it is at least twenty years, and possibly 
twenty-four. Joe is not so impassive as Grief ; he is 
more like the rest of us, being swayed by curiosity, 
touched by social affections, and dependent upon so- 
ciety. He has a gentle, intelligent, courageous eye, 



FIRE HORSES. 253 

and a good head. His great age is indicated by an 
extremely hollow back, but otherwise he is still a 
grand-looking horse. He, too, is a mottled bay or 
brown, and not unlike Grrief, except that he is even 
larger. In fact, the four old hre horses whom I have 
particularly described would have made a great team 
in their youth, — broad-chested, deep-lunged, low- 
standing, short-backed fellows, with immense shoul- 
ders, roomy stomachs, and strong hind quarters. Joe 
is now an engine horse. His mate, though in com- 
parison with him a mere colt, is in truth an oldish 
beast ; and the two agreed some time ago that they 
would trot out no more from their stalls when the 
alarm sounded (having as it seemed to them, done 
that sort of thing quite long enough), but would pro- 
ceed from the stable to the pole at a dignified walk. 
This resolution has been kept. The firemen have 
tried to hurry them, but without success. Rattan 
rods (such as schoolboys used to be whipped with) 
are hung behind their stalls, and descend automati- 
cally when the alarm strikes ; but the old horses laugh 
at this gentle flagellation; they refuse to hurry their 
pace, and, alone among the fire horses of Boston, they 
advance with slow and measured step from the stable 
to the engine house. 

The only remaining question which we have to ask 
is this : What becomes of them all ? What fate is in 
store for Old Joe, for Grief, for that veteran hose- 
cart steed, who gallops with his heavy load till the 
blood runs from his nostrils ? When thoroughly 
worn out, fire horses are sold, or, more commonly, 
handed over to a dealer in part payment for new ani- 
mals. In some cities, in Brooklyn, in New York also. 



254 



ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



I believe, they are disposed of at auction ; and inas- 
much as a certain distinction attaches to them even in 
decrepitude, they always bring a little more than they 
are worth as beasts of burden. At most, however, 
they sell for a song. Broken down horses are bought 
by poor men ; they have scanty fare, little or no cloth- 
ing, hard boards to lie on, and, commonly, severe toil 
to endure. 

The cast-off fire horse must sadly miss his good oats 
and hay, his clean, warm stable and comfortable bed, 
his elaborate grooming and gentle treatment, his com- 
panions, brute and human, the caresses and sweet- 
meats to which he was daily treated. Removed from 
all these luxuries, his life broken up by a sudden and 
painful revulsion, we may be sure that the equine 
veteran, who spent his best years in helping to save 
our property from destruction, must very shortly 
present a spectacle of misery and despair. The 
next bony animal that the reader sees pulling a 
tip-cart may be a once proud and petted fire horse, 
for whom the only possible boon is now the axe of 
the knacker. 





X. 



ARABIAN HOKSES. 



THEKE is no other race in the world by whom 
good birth is valued so highly as it is by the 
Bedouins of Arabia. And yet in their form of gov- 
ernment these nomadic clans are the most democratic 
of people. Every Arab finds himself the member of 
a tribe, but if he chooses to leave it, he can do so 
without let or hindrance. He may take refuge with 
strangers, or pitch his tent in solitude and isolation. 
Even when the majority determine upon war or upon 
some warlike expedition, the minority are not obliged, 
either by law or by public opinion, to join with their 
fellows. They stay at home, if they prefer, without 
discredit. Each tribe has a leader, a sheikh, elected 
by universal suffrage, but his authority is very lim- 
ited, and his commands are enforceable only so far 



256 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

as they commend themselves to the popular judg- 
ment. The sheikh is an agent rather than a ruler. 
All matters of real importance are decided by vote. 
The sheikh leads the tribe to new camping-grounds, 
settles small disputes, transacts political business, 
entertains strangers, and keeps open house at all 
hours of the day and night. This last is perhaps his 
chief function. The humblest shepherd addresses the 
sheikh by his Christian name, and neither in dress 
nor in conduct does he affect any superiority. More- 
over, the possession of wealth will not procure a man 
distinction or respect among the Bedouins, any more 
than the possession of office ; and this is remarkable, 
because the Bedouins love money to the point of 
avarice. 

But to high birth the Arab, democrat though he be, 
renders homage most sincere. There are among the 
Bedouins certain families of traditional good breed- 
ing. For such families a respect almost reverential is 
shown ; and it is from their members that the sheikhs 
are usually chosen, ^or is this high value errone- 
ously attached to noble blood. Good breeding and 
good birth are nearly always found together in the 
desert, and the sheikhs are commonly distinguished 
by the quiet elegance and dignity of their manners. 
If a sheikh be deficient in this regard, he is almost 
invariably a man of inferior origin, raised to com- 
mand by force of his own talents and energy. 

The respect which the Bedouins have for high 
birth in their horses is, if possible, even greater, 
becoming absolutely fanatical. Lady Anne Blunt ^ 

^ Mr. Wilfrid Blunt and his wife, Lady Anne Blunt, made two 
journeys to the desert, and their observations are recorded in two 



ARABIAN HORSES. 257 

speaks of the reports which reached her party in the 
desert as to the extraordinarily fine pedigree of a par- 
ticidar horse owned by a certain old man. " ^ Maneghi 
Ibn Sbeyel ' [the title of the horse's family], they kept 
on repeating in a tone of tenderness, and as if tasting 
the flavor of each syllable." The travellers made a 
considerable detour in order to see this famous ani- 
mal. When they arrived at the tent of his owner, 
they found that he had gone to borrow a donkey for 
the purpose of moving the family furniture to a new 
camp ; for " a horse of the Maneghi's nobility could 
not, of course, be used for baggage purposes." Pres- 
ently, however, the old man appeared, riding his 
high-born steed, which proved to be " a meek-looking 
little black pony, all mane and tail." 

Mr. Blunt expresses the opinion that the Arabian 
horse is degenerating through in-breeding, and more 
especially because animals of the best families, though 
individually inferior, are preferred to superior indi- 
viduals, but members of families belonging to an 
inferior rank. However this may be, it is certain 
that the extraordinary excellence of the Arabian 
horse in his present form could never have been de- 
veloped or maintained had it not been for the ex- 
treme care which the Bedouins bestow upon equine 
descent. 

They have no written pedigrees ; it is all an affair 
of memory and of notoriety in the tribe. Certain 

interesting books, Avritten chiefly by Lady Anne. These are, " The 
Bedouin Tribes of tlie Euplirates," and " Our Pilgrimage to Nejd." 
They lived among the Bedouins for some time, and what they re- 
port about the Arabian horse, his (jualities. his descent, and the 
families in which he is grouped, agrees in all substantial respects 
with the account, presently to be mentioned, given by Major Upton. 

17 



258 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

alleged pedigrees of Arabian horses, couched in 
romantic language, and represented as carried in a 
small bag hung by a cord around the animal's neck, 
have been published ; but these are forgeries, gotten 
up probably by horse-dealers, Egyptian, Syrian, or 
Persian. The breeding of every horse is a matter of 
common knowledge, and it would be impossible for 
his owner to fabricate a pedigree so as to deceive the 
natives, even if he were so inclined. The Bedouins, 
it seems necessary to admit, are, in general, great 
liars ; and they will lie (to a stranger) about the age, 
the qualities, or the ownership of a horse ; but they 
will not lie about his pedigree, even when they can do 
so with impunity. To be truthful on this subject is 
almost a matter of religion, certainly a point of honor, 
in the desert. 

How far back do these pedigrees run, and what 
was the origin of the Arabian horse ? These ques- 
tions it is impossible to answer definitely. The Bed- 
ouins themselves believe that Allah created the equine 
genus in their soil. " The root or spring of the horse 
is," they say, " in the land of the Arab " ; and again, 
" It was Allah who created him, for the happiness of 
believers." 

This pious belief is shared by a few generous souls 
in England and America, a small but devoted band, 
who gallantly defend the cause of the Arabian horse 
against his only rival, the modern English thorough- 
bred. Chief among these faithful was the late Major 
R. D. Upton, who visited the desert himself, and who 
has recorded his experiences and his views. ^ Major 

^ " lu Newmarket and Arabia," a small book, which was first 
published in 1873 •, " Gleanings from the Desert/' a later work 



ARABIAN HORSES. 259 

Upton concluded that the horse was found in Arabia 
" not hiter than about one hundred years after the 
deluge, ... if indeed he did not find his way there 
immediately after the exodus from the ark, which is 
by no means improbable," and this probability the 
author then proceeds seriously to consider. Accord- 
ing to Major Upton and a few kindred spirits, all 
other breeds are mongrels, and the only way to obtain 
horseflesh in its best and purest form is to go back to 
the fountain head, to tiie horse of the desert. 

Naturalists, I believe, have not yet determined 
where the genus originated ; but they gather that 
three allied animals, the tapir, the rhinoceros, and 
the horse, have all descended from a common ances- 
tor of the eocene period. Of these three, the tapir 
and the rhinoceros certainly are found in many parts 
of the world. The immediate precursor of the horse 
was the small animal called Equida, which was ex- 
ceedingly common both in America and in Europe. 
Fossil skeletons have also been found in almost every 
part of America, varying but slightly from the skel- 
eton of the present horse, although externally the 
animals which they represent may have differed from 
him as widely as does the zebra. It is possible, 
therefore, that, contrary to the usual opinion, horses 
existed on this continent in a wild state before the 
coming of the Spaniards. These facts as to the wide 
distribution of both the ancestors and the first-cousins, 
so to say, of the primitive horse, tend to show, al- 
though of course they fail to prove, that he also was 

only a part of wliich, however, is devoted to horseflesh ; and a paper 
concerning Arabian Horses, published in Fraser's Magazine for 
September, 1876. 



260 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

widely distributed, not coniined even to the salubrious 
region of Arabia. 

But there is one argument in favor of the Arabian 
being the primitive horse, which I have chanced upon, 
and which I here present to those enthusiasts who 
will appreciate it. There is a conjecture of Darwin's 
that the dark stripe running along the spine of some 
horses, and occasionally extending to the shoulders 
and legs, may indicate a " descent of all the existing 
races from a single dun-colored, more or less striped 
primitive stock, to which our horses occasionally re- 
vert." In the Cleveland Bay family this dark stripe, 
or "list," is valued as a mark of pure blood; it is 
found also in the Exmoor breed of ponies, and in some 
other strains. 

Now Major Upton reports an observation made by 
him upon horses in the desert as follows : " A line 
somewhat darker than the general color of the animal 
is to be seen in colt foals, running in continuation of 
the mane along the spine, and to be traced for some 
way even among the long hair of the tail. I never 
saw it in a filly. ... It can be traced in old horses 
and in those of a very dark color. ... It appears as 
the first or primitive color of the animal, which tones 
away by almost imperceptible degrees from the back 
to the belly; it may be seen' in lines on the males of 
other wild animals. ' At certain seasons, and as the 
horse ages, and dependent also in some degree on his 
condition, the dark color spreads over the shoulders 
and upper parts of the body, ... as if shaded with 
black." To be sure, Major Upton states that this phe- 
nomenon is " totally different from the markings of 
the zebra, quagga, or any of the hybrids " ; but never- 



ARABIAN HORSES. 261 

theless it seems to lie essentially the same. Zebras 
and quaggas are of the equine family ; and this pecu- 
liar marking of the Arabian horse would, on Darwin's 
hypothesis, indicate that, if not himself the primitive 
horse, he at least stands nearer to that animal than 
does any other existing equus. 

However, this discussion has no practical value, nor 
is it essential even for the Arabo-maniacs to prove 
their case historically. This fact is sufficient, and can- 
not be controverted, namely, that the Arabian horse 
is the only one now extant of a fixed type. His 
antiquity is such that in comparison with him all 
other breeds are mongrels of yesterday. It is con- 
jectured that he dates back to the time of Ishmael ; 
and it is reasonably certain that the present breed 
existed in the days of Mahomet. 

This is antiquity enough. The English racer, as I 
have stated, is a modern product, his stud-book dat- 
ing from the year 1808. According to the standard 
of the desert, therefore, the English horse is a par- 
venu ; and although he is bigger, stronger, and faster 
than the Arab, he is less sound, beautiful, intelligent, 
and gentle. Moreover, as must be the case with a 
new breed, the English thoroughbred varies greatly 
in size, in shape, and in many other characteristics ; 
whereas the Arabian, though each family has its pe- 
culiarities, is much more nearly of one type, and al- 
most of one size. Pure Arabians range from 14 to 
15 hands, being commonly about 14.2. Very rarely 
one stands as low as 13.o, or as high as 15.1. An 
English officer, speaking of Arabian horses as racers, 
says, " They can all gallop about equally fast." 

In estimating the Arabian horse, or in comparing 



262 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

him with his English contemporary, it must be borne 
in mind that an Arabian of absolutely pure breed is 
an animal which few European eyes have ever looked 
upon. Of all the Oriental horses imported to England 
in the eighteenth century, and upon which, in great 
part, the English thoroughbred is founded, only one, 
the famous Darley Arabian, procured by Mr. Darley 
in the latter part of Queen Anne's reign, is known 
to have been of pure lineage. It is probable that 
no thoroughbred Arabian horse has yet reached our 
shores, except Kismet, a stallion recently brought 
over, who died a few hours after landing ; and per- 
haps the only Eastern mare of that degree ever in 
the United States is Xaomi, a late importation from 
England, to which country she Avas taken by Major 
Upton. 

There are no wild horses in Arabia, although there 
is a widespread belief to the contrary. This animal, 
as an old writer explains, "can live only of man's 
hand in the droughty Khdla.''^ The pure-bred Arabian 
horses are the possession, almost exclusively, of a 
single great Bedouin clan, known as the Anazeh, and 
of this clan a tribe called the Gomussa have the best. 
Even among the Bedouins, apart from the Gomussa, 
there are not many animals of the highest stamp. 
" I doubt," says Mr. Blunt, " if there are two hundred 
really iirst-class mares in the whole of Northern Ara- 
bia. By this I, of course, do not mean first-class in 
point of blood, for animals of the purest strains are 
still fairly numerous, but first-class in quality and 
appearance as well as blood." 

Across Central Arabia extends a vast territory 
called the ]N"ejd, composed of sandy deserts and rich 



ARABIAN HORSES. 263 

pastures. This whole region is a plateau, and the 
atmosphere is dry and bracing. It is under such 
conditions that horses thrive, and here was the origi- 
nal home of the Arabian horse. In Flanders, where 
the air is humid, and the pastures are moist and rank, 
horses grow large, but they have flat feet, inferior 
sinews, lymphatic temperaments, and soft hearts. 
Flemish nags have been imported largely to England 
for many hundred years, being cheap, big, and showy ; 
bnt they have always been noted for their lack of 
endurance. Even among thoroughbreds unsoundness 
is frequent in the British Isles, due in great part to 
the moist climate. The English horse, when trans- 
planted to India or to Australia, becomes much im- 
proved in the quality of his feet and legs, and this 
improvement is doubtless the effect chiefly of a drier 
climate. 

The Anazeh spend their winters in the Nejd, mi- 
grating in spring as far as the Euphrates, and it is 
among the wandering tribes of this clan that the 
Arabian steed in his purity must be studied. The 
Anazeh, and the Bedouins in general, keep their 
mares, but sell many of their horses, and it is from 
the horses thus sold, crossed with inferior mares, 
that the animal known in Europe and in India as 
an Arab is bred. The Bedouins call these half-breds 
^' the sons of horses," and they look upon them, as 
well as upon all other breeds but their own, with 
the greatest contempt, stigmatizing them as kadishes, 
or mongrels. The desert is almost surrounded by 
horse-growing countries, and it is touched here and 
there by great horse markets. On the west and 
northwest is Syria, where many of these bastard 



264 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

Arabs, the "sons of liorses," are raised. The chief 
horse market of Syria is Damascus, on the shore 
of the desert. Opi^osite, on the eastern shore, in 
almost a straight line from Damascus, is Bagdad, the 
capital of Turkish Arabia, another great horse mar- 
ket ; and south of Bagdad, between the Euphrates 
and the Tigris, there is a wide stretch of country 
where many half Arabs are bred, chiefly for sale in 
India. 

The Arabian horses, so called, that are found in 
Turkey, especially in Constantinople, in Egypt, in 
Syria, and in India, are not the true coursers of the 
desert, but their " sons." They are commonly gray, 
and hence the popular idea that gray is the normal 
color of the Arabian horse. As a matter of fact, the 
Bedouins prefer bay with black points, — not objecting 
to three white feet, — and this is the most frequent 
color among the Anazeh mares ; next comes chestnut, 
then gray. Black is a rare and inferior color. White 
horses are much esteemed, but seldom occur. Boans, 
piebalds, duns, and yellows are never found among 
pure-bred Arabs. The two Arabian stallions sent to 
General Grant as a present from the Sultan of Tur- 
key, in 1876, are both grays, and though they were 
supposed to be pure bred, the probability is, I can- 
not help thinking, that they are kadishes, " sons of 
horses," not horses themselves. ]S"either money nor 
high office can command the flower of the desert. 
Even Abbass Pasha had only a few really thorough- 
bred mares, and yet he spent five million dollars in 
gathering his famous stud at Cairo. 

This man appears to have had a notable passion 
for horseflesh. On one occasion he despatched a 



ARABIAN HORSES. 265 

special mission to Medina for the sole purpose of 
procuring a rare work on farriery. At another time 
he sent a bullock cart from Egypt all the way to 
Xejd to bring home a famous mare, old and unable 
to travel on foot, that he had ]jurchased from the 
Anazeh. A Bedouin, who had been sent to Cairo by 
one of the chiefs of ^'ejd, was shown over the vice- 
roy's stables, by order of that official. On being 
asked his opinion of the blood, he replied frankly 
that the stables did not contain a single thorough- 
bred. He added an apology on the part of his chief 
for the animals which he had just brought to the 
viceroy from Arabia, declaring that neither Sultan 
nor sheikh could procure colts of the best strain. 

Bagdad is on the very edge of the desert, and the 
Pasha of that place has unlimited resources ; but 
Mr. Blunt says- "Although his Excellency's horses 
were, as a lot, good of their kind, they were very 
different from real Arabs ; and on comparing them 
with those of the Anazeh their inferiority was con- 
spicuous, and their history could easily be under- 
stood. They were very nearly all gray." 

In the centre of Arabia, in the district of Nejd and 
on the border of the desert, is the city of Hail, where 
for many years has existed the famous stud of the 
Emir of Hail. Emissaries of this dignitary are con- 
stantly on the lookout for mares, wherever they can 
find them, and not infrequently fjhdzus, or maraud- 
ing expeditions, have been sent out by the Emir 
against this or that tribe, for the express purpose of 
capturing some particular mare whose fame had 
spread over the desert. It was of the animals in 
this stud that Mr. ^^^ G. Palgrave's oft-quoted de- 



266 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



scription was written. Out of his two interesting 
volumes ^ tliis passage alone lias snrvived : — 

" Remarkably full in the haunches, with a shoulder 
of a slope so elegant as to make one, m the words of 
an Arab poet, ' go raving mad about it ' ; a little, a 
very little saddle-backed, just the curve which indi- 
cates springiness without any weakness ; a head broad 
above, and tapering down to a nose fine enough to 
verify the phrase of ' drinking from a pint pot ' ; , . . 
a most intelligent and yet a singularly gentle look ; 
full eye ; sharp, thornlike little ears ; legs, fore and 
hind, that seemed as if made of hammered iron, so 
clean and yet so well twisted with sinew ; a neat, 
round hoof, just the requisite for hard ground ; the 
tail set on, or rather thrown out, at a perfect arch , 
coat smooth, shining, and light; the mane long, but 
not overgrown nor heavy ; and an air and step that 
seemed to say, ' Look at me, am I not pretty ? ' — 
their appearance justified all reputation, all value, all 
poetry. The prevaling color was chestnut or gray. 
A light bay, an iron color, white or black, were less 
common. . . . But if asked what are, after all, the 
specially distinctive points of the Nejdee horse, I 
should reply, the slope of the shoulder, the extreme 
cleanness of the shank, and the full, rounded haunch, 
though every other part too has a perfection and a 
harmony unwitnessed (at least by my eyes) anywhere 
else." 

And yet Mr. Blunt says of this same stud : •' Of 
all the mares in the prince's stable, I do not think 
more than three or four could show with advantage 
among the Gomussa." He admits, however, that 

1 " Central and Eastern Arabia." 



ARABIAN HORSES. 267 

their heads were handsomer than those of the Anazeh 
mares. The latter are built more nearly on a race- 
horse model, having greater length of body and of 
limb. The Nejd ^ horses are perhaps prettier, though 
not so bloodlike. Unlike the Anazeh mares, they 
stand higher at the withers than at the rump. 
" Every horse at Hail," writes Mr. Blunt, '' had its 
tail set on in the same fashion ; in repose some- 
thing like the tail of a rocking-horse, and yet not, as 
has been described [by Mr. Palgrave], thrown out 
in a perfect arch.' In motion the tail was held 
high in the air, and looked as if it could not under 
any circumstances be carried low." 

It has been suggested that this phenomenon is 
partly, at least, the effect of art ; that before the 
foal is an hour old its tail is bent back over a stick, 
the twist producing a permanent result. But this is 
probably a slander. 

There is one family of American trotters, that of 
the Mambrino Patchens, which alone among American- 
bred nags is distinguished for the beautiful carriage 
of the tail, and, as I have mentioned in a previous 
chapter, jealous persons sometimes make the same 
insinuation in reference to these horses that was 
directed against the stud of the Emir of Hail. 

All Arabian horses carry their tails well, and, next 
to the head and its setting on, the tail is the feature 
which the Arab looks to in judging a horse. " I have 
seen mares gallop with their tails out straight as colts, 
and lit, as the Arabs say, to hang your cloak on," 
Major Upton remarks. A family of horses renowned 
in the desert is descended from a mare of whom the 

* Nejd, a district, is the general ; Anazeh. tlie j)articular term. 



268 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

following tradition exists. Her owner was once fly- 
ing from the enemy, and, being hard pressed, he cast 
off his cloak in order to relieve the mare of that un- 
necessary weight. But when, having distanced his 
pursuers, he halted, what was his surprise to find 
that his cloak had lodged on the mare's outstretched 
tail and still hung there ! From this incident, the 
heroine of the story has figured ever since in the un- 
written pedigrees of the desert as "the Arab of the 
Cloak." 

Occasionally, though not often, one sees an Ameri- 
can-bred horse, especially if it be a colt, galloping in 
the pasture with its tail carried so high that the hair 
divides and falls forward like a streamer. This is a 
very common sight in the desert. "I have seen a 
mare, an Abayan Sherakh," writes Major Upton, 
^' galloping loose, with both head and tail high to an 
extent such as I could hardly have believed had I 
not seen it. Her tail was not only high, but seemed 
to be right over her back, and, besides streaming out 
behind like a flag, covered her loins and quarters. It 
was a splendid sight to one who can appreciate a 
horse." A single horseman mounted on a mare that 
carried her tail in this superb manner, and galloping 
in the distance, away from the spectator, has often 
been mistaken in the desert for three horsemen riding 
abreast. 

What does an Arabian horse look like, — a mare of 
the desert, of noble birth, belonging, we will say, to 
the tribe Gomussa, of the clan Anazeh, and valued 
for her high descent from Nejd to the Euphrates, 
from Damascus to Bagdad ? Let us imagine her 
coming forward at a walk. She advances with a 



ARABIAN HORSES. 269 

long, swinging stride, the hind feet considerably over- 
stepping the print left by the fore feet, — overstepping 
from twelve to eighteen inches, — sometimes, if care- 
ful observers may be trusted, even as much as two or 
three feet. Above all, she swings her head from side 
to side, and looks about with curiosity, as she goes. 
This mark of alertness and vivacity is among the 
Bedouins a sine qua non of good breeding. The son 
of a certain sheikh being about to purchase a horse, 
asked advice of his father. The old man answered 
simply, '' Get one whose ears are ever in motion, 
turning now forward and now backward, as if he 
were listening to something." 

In truth, a well-bred horse, the world over, exhibits 
similar indications of a lively spirit, and of an in- 
quiring mind. There is no pleasure in the use of a 
horse who fails to prick his ears, and to keep them in 
motion; and it would be a short but not seriously 
inadequate description of a good roadster to say that 
you can drive him fifty or sixty miles in a day with- 
out taking the prick out of his ears. The head of our 
Gomussa mare is the first and chief part of her to be 
examined. 

Whyte-Melville wrote : — 

" A head like a snake, ami a skin like a mouse, 

An eye like a woman's, bright, gentle, and brown, 
With loins and a back that would carry a house, 
And quarters to lift him smack over a town." 

This comparison, of the head of a horse to that of 
the snake has often been criticised, and 3'et I think 
an Arab would perceive the force of the simile. The 
head of an Arabian horse when he is excited, writes 
one, ''seems to be made up of forehead, eyes, and 



270 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

nostrils," and this suggests the raised head of a 
hissing snake. 

What gives the head of the Arabian steed this 
peculiar appearance is chiefly the prominence of the 
forehead, — greater in the mares than in the horses. 
A small head the Arabians particularly dislike, as 
indicating a small brain, but the size should be in the 
upper regions of the skull. From the top of the head 
to a point between the eyes will often measure as 
much as from the last mentioned point to the upper 
edge of the nostril. Morever, the forehead, between 
and below the eyes, should be slightly convex or bul- 
ging.^ The space around the eyes should be free of 
hair, so as to show the skin underneath, which at 
this part is particularly black and lustrous. The 
name for the original breed of Arab horses, now 
divided into five families, is Keheilan, from kohl, 
antimony, the Arabian horse having by nature that 
dark circle about the eye which the women of Arabia 
are wont to obtain by the use of antimony. Some- 
times the whole face, and even the ears, are entirely 
free of hair. The cheek-bone should be deep and 
lean, and the jaw-bone clearly marked. There is 
great width of jaw and depth of jowl. In fine, the 
head of the Arabian horse is large where the brain 
is, and large in the breathing apparatus, but small in 
all the unessential parts. The face narrows sud- 
denly below the cheek-bone, and runs down almost 
to a point. '' A nose that would go in a pint pot " 

1 This feature, which, b}^ the way, distinguishes the Touchstone 
family of English thoroughbreds, is not to be confounded with that 
of a convex or " Roman " nose. The latter points to a low descent, 
and is associated with obstinacy. 



ARABIAN HORSES. 271 

is au old descriptiou of the Arabian cast of counte- 
nance. 

But the profile of the Arabian horse terminates, not 
" with the nostril, as in the English race horse, but 
with the tip of the lip." " The nostrils," Mr. Blunt 
states, " when in repose, should lie fiat with the face 
appearing in it little more than a slit, and pinched 
and puckered up, as also should the mouth, which 
should have the under lip longer than the upper, 
'like the camel's,' 'the Bedouins say." ^ 

"Fine his nose, his nostrils thin, 
Bnt blown abroad by the pride within." 

"the ears, especially in the mare, should be long 
but fine and delicately cut, like the ears of a gazelle. 
This agrees with our Western notion on the subject, 
for small " mouse-ears," as they call them, are not 
liked by our horsemen. As to the carriage of the 
ears, Major Upton well describes it as follows : " The 
ears, to be perfect, should be so placed that they point 
inwards, so that the tips may almost touch. The out- 
line of the inner side of the ear should be inuch 
curved, and, as it were, notched about half-way down." 

Xext to the head and ears, the Arabs value the 
manner in which the head is set on the neck. This 
point, or rather form of juncture, they call the mitbeh. 
It especially refers to the shape of the windpipe, and 

^ " The nostril, which is peculiarly long, not round, runs up- 
ward toward the face, and is also set up outward from the nose, 
like the mouth of a pouch or sack Avhich has been tied. This is 
a very beautiful feature, and can hardly be appreciated except by 
sight. AVhen it expands, it opens both upwards and outwards, and 
in profile is seen to extend beyond the outline of the nose." — 
Major Upton. 



272 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

to the manner in which the throat enters or runs in 
between the jaws, where it should have a slight and 
graceful curve. "This," Major Upton adds, "per- 
mits of a graceful and easy carriage of the head, and 
. . . gives great freedom to the air-passages. The 
Keheilan is essentially a deep-breathed and a good 
and long-winded horse." 

The peculiar rounded prominence of the forehead 
already described, the Arabs call the jibbah ; and the 
jibbah, the mitbeh, the ears, and the tail are the 
parts as to which they are most particular. These 
points indicate breeding, and breeding is all that the 
Arabs care for in a horse. 

For the rest, the Arabian horse, in his highest form, 
exhibits great length. He stands over much ground, 
as the phrase is, although his back is short. There is 
a common notion that the Arabian at rest keeps his 
legs well under him ; that he belongs to that type of 
which it is said "all four feet would go in a bushel 
basket"; but this is erroneous. Often, on the other 
hand, the Arabian stands with his fore legs bent 
backward from the knee, which is thought to be a 
good formation or habit. In the length of his body, 
in the length of his hind legs, which is extreme, and 
in the fact that he stands higher behind than in front, 
there is a resemblance between the Arabian horse, at 
least the Anazeh horse, and the typical American 
trotter. Maud S., for example, has these peculiari- 
ties. Sunol has them in still greater degree. The 
Anazeh mares, moreover, are very long from hip to 
hock, and this again is the almost invariable forma- 
tion of the trotting horse. The body of the Arabian 
is elegantly shaped. His ribs are more deeply arched 



ARABIAN HORSES. 273 

than is "usually the case with our horses, and conse- 
quently he swells out behind the shoulders in a grace- 
ful curve, whereas both the running horse and the 
trotter are very apt to be what is called slab-sided. 

Another peculiarity of the Arabian is the great 
length of his pastern joints, to which is chiefly due 
the remarkable springiness and elasticity of his gait. 
" He is so light that he could dance upon the bosom 
of a woman without bruising it." And a quaint 
writer thus describes a mare of the desert: "All 
shining, beautiful, and gentle of herself, she seemed 
a darling life upon that savage soil, not worthy of 
her gracious pasterns." Nor, despite its length, 
does this joint ever break down with the Arabian 
horse, as happens so frequently with the English 
racer. Grogginess and knuckling over are unknown 
in the desert. 

As to the legs of the Arabian, they are as hard as 
flint ; spavin, curb, and ringbone are very infrequent. 
In speaking of a certain Anazeh mare, a bay with 
black points. Major Upton declares that her legs ap- 
peared to have been cut out of black marble, and 
then highly polished. The knees and hocks of the 
Arabian are large, as they are in all good horses. 
" A Bedawee, whose mare had a foal running by her 
side, being pursued, feared that his steed would not 
do her best, out of consideration for the foal ; there- 
fore he struck at the foal with his lance, and it fell 
back disabled. But when the Arab stopped his mare, 
the foal shortly made its appearance ; and although 
it had been wounded in the hocks, it had made such 
good play that it was called the father or possessor 
of good hocks. It is a strain most highly esteemed." 

18 



274 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



, ^iK-dV^XV, 



Another family is descended from " the Mare of 
the Old Woman/' whose story is as follows. A 
Bedawee had been pursued for some days through a 
long and devious course. On the way his mare gave 
birth to a foal, but her master soon mounted again 
and continued his flight, leaving the little creature to 
its fate. However, when he stopped at night to rest, 
the infant appeared, having followed all the way, not- 
withstanding its extreme youth, and thereupon he 
gave it to an old woman, who brought it up by hand ; 
and this foal, " the Mare of the Old Woman," became 
the mother of a noted family.^ 

As to the manner in which the Arabs treat their 
horses, it is pleasant to be assured that neither ro- 
mance nor tradition has exaggerated its kindness and 
familiarity. " Their great merit as horse-breakers is 
unwearied patience. Loss of temper with a beast is 
not in their nature, and I have never seen them strike 
or ill use their mares in any way." If Providence 
provided Central Arabia as a region peculiarly fit for 
breeding sound horses, it would seem also that the 
ancient Arabian race was specially designed to have 
the nurture and training of these high-bred animals. 
The Arabs have a saying which is indicative of their 
character . " A noble may labor with his own hands, 
without disgrace, in three cases, — for his horse, for 
his father, and for his guest." 

It is clear that rough treatment would soon convert 
Arabian horses into demons. Mr. Williahi Day, the 
well known English trainer, conjectures that the ill 

^ The endurance of young foals is surprising. I know of a case 
in which a foal only ten days old travelled by the side of its dam, 
a Morgan, over fifty miles in about twelve hours, without injury. 



ARABIAN HORSES. 275 

temper and ferocity which characterize some strains 
of the English thorouglibred come from the Arab 
blood in their ancestry. Hence he infers that Ara- 
bian horses are bad-tempered. His conjecture is very 
likely correct, but his inference is a vicious one. It 
is not improbable that a generation or two of the old- 
fashioned English groom, with his rough " Come up, 
horse!" and dig in the ribs or kick in the belly, 
added to the use of whips and spurs and severe bits, 
would sour the temper and awake the resentment of 
so highly bred and finely organized an animal as one 
of Arabian descent. But in the desert viciousness in 
the horse is absolutely unknown. The Arab rides, 
without saddle or stirrups, on a small pad fastened in 
place by a surcingle. As for bridle and bit, he has 
none. The horse is guided by a halter, the rope of 
which the rider holds in his hand, and he is con- 
trolled by the voice. " I have never seen either vio- 
lent plunging, rearing, or indeed any serious attempt 
made to throw the rider. Whether a Bedouin would 
be able to sit a bare-backed, unbroken four-year-old 
colt as the Gauchos of South America do is exceed- 
ingly doubtful." 

The Arabian mare has no more fear of her master 
than a dog would have with us, and she is on terms 
of almost canine intimacy with the whole family. 
An old traveller in the desert describes an incident 
on a wet evening at the sheikh's tent: *' Evening 
clouds gathered. . . . The mare returned of herself 
through the falling weather, and came and stood at 
our coffee fire, in half-human wise, to dry her soaked 
skin and warm herself as one among us. She ap- 
proached the sitters about the hearth, and, putting 



276 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

down her soft nose, kissed each member of the group, 
till the sheikh was fain to rise and scold his mare 
away.'^ 

" All's tent," writes Mr. Blunt, '' was partl}^ occu- 
pied by a filly and a bay foal, the latter not a week 
old, and very engaging. It was tied up, as the cus- 
tom is, by a rope round the neck, while its mother 
was away grazing, and neighed continually. It was 
very tame, however, and let me stroke it, and sniffed 
at my pockets, as if it knew that there might be 
some sugar there." 

No wonder, then, that the Arabian foals are de- 
scribed as being gentle and familiar. They do not 
run away when they are approached at pasture ; they 
are not to be intimidated by the flourishing of sticks 
or by the waving of garments. If they happen to be 
lying down, when one comes near them, they continue 
iu that position, instead of scrambling to their feet in 
alarm ; and they have an engaging habit of using 
their masters as rubbing-posts. All this is true, in 
general, of our trotting-bred American foals. The 
fact is that any colt, whatever its origin, if treated 
with uniform kindness, will become by the age of six 
or eight months as tame and fearless as the pets of 
the desert. 

The manner of rearing the Arabian colt is as fol- 
lows. It is weaned at the tender age of one month, 
instead of being allowed to run with its mother for 
four, five, or six months, according to our custom, 
but it is then fed on camel's milk, which is very nu- 
tritious. So soon as it is weaned, the dam goes out to 
pasture, and the foal remains close by the tent, being 
tied by a cord around the neck, or around the hind 



ARABIAN HORSES. 277 

leg above the hock. The chikiren play with it, and 
when it is a year old they mount it occasionally, and 
thus it gradually becomes accustomed to carrying 
weight. Before it attains two years of age it has 
been ridden by a half-grown boy, and a year later it 
is put through some long and severe gallops. The 
Bedouins maintain — very unreasonably, as Western 
experience shows — that, unless a horse has done hard 
work before he is three years old, he will never be fit 
to do it afterward. It may be, indeed, that Arabian 
and " thoroughbred " horses can do hard w^rk in 
their colthood with impunity ; but of half-bred, still 
more of cold-blooded horses, Shakspere's adage still 
holds true : 

" The colt that 's backed and burdened being young 
Loseth his pride, and never waxeth strong." 

When the Arabian colt is about two and a half 
years old, besides being taught to gallop in the figure 
of an 8, and to change his leg, so as to become supple, 
he is ridden by his master on a journey. The conse- 
quence of this heroic treatment is, that splints are not 
uncommon in Arabian horses, and sometimes their 
shank bones become bent permanently. Occasionally, 
also, the colt gets a pair of broken knees by being 
ridden over rough ground at too early an age. But, 
strange to say, the Arabians make no account of such 
a blemish. Their horses, when full grown, never fall, 
despite their careless way of walking. " The Arabian 
horse is too sure of his footing to be careful, except 
on rough ground, and there he never makes a false 
step." 

I own a Morgan mare which has precisely the 
same peculiarity. On ordinary roads she will not 



278 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

take the pains to avoid an obstacle such as a stone, 
and will frequently trip over it, knowing full well 
that she can always save herself with the other leg. 
But I have driven this same mare down a mountain 
side, where the only road was the dry bed of a rocky 
stream, and there she picked her way in perfect 
safety, without taking a false step. 

The smallness of the Arabian horse is due partly, 
at least, to scantiness of food. " Horses, mares, and 
colts, all alike, are starved during a great part of the 
year, no corn being ever given, and only camel's milk 
when other food fails. They are often without water 
for several days together, and in the most piercing 
nights of winter they stand uncovered, and with no 
more shelter than can be got on the lee side of the 
tents. Their coats become long and shaggy, and they 
are left uncombed and unbrushed till the new coat 
comes in spring. At these times they are ragged- 
looking scare-crows, half starved, and as rough as 
ponies. In the summer, however, their coats are as 
fine as satin, and they show all the appearance of 
breeding one has a right to expect of their blood." 

The cow-pony of our Western and Southwestern 
States is akin to the Arabian, being descended from 
the Barbs (in part Arabian) that the Spaniards 
brought over when they conquered South America ; 
and the cow-pony and the Arabian horse fare very 
much the same in winter, and undergo a similar 
change in spring. " The cow-pony," writes Colonel 
T. A. Dodge in a private letter, " in many places, in 
the winter, looks like a bear. His hide becomes fur, 
and his legs are as big as barrels. But when he 
scours out in the spring, he is as fine as any thorough- 



ARABIAN HORSES. 279 

bred. He comes of the same stock which produced 
the English thoroughbred, and he has had the very 
best of training in running away from wolves and in 
hunting his fodder. In other words, with him the 
species is a survival of the httest. . . . Barring his 
attenuated form, which conies from his annual starv- 
ing, he is one of the most astonishing creatures ever 
made." 

The last touch of romance is added to the Bedouin 
when we learn that he is not in any sense a horse- 
dealer. The town Arab is often a dealer in horses, 
but the Arab of the desert treasures the glorious 
animal for his own sake, and not as a merchantable 
commodity. If he has a mare to sell, there she is, — 
you may take her or leave her ; but the owner will 
make no attempt to exaggerate her virtues or to 
apologize for her defects. "He knows little of 
showing off a horse, or even of making him stand to 
advantage ; but, however anxious he may be to sell 
him, brings him just as he is, dirty and ragged, tired, 
and perhaps broken-kneed. He has a supreme con- 
tempt himself for everything except blood in his 
beast, and he expects everybody else to have the 
same." The Arabian horse is frequently blemished 
by lance wounds and other injuries, and especially 
from firing with the hot iron. This is the sovereign 
remedy among the Arabs for man and horse, and 
upon both animals it is practised to a cruel and 
ridiculous degree. Mr. Palgrave mentions one case 
where a deep circular wound had been burned upon 
the skull of an insane man, the injury being suffi- 
ciently great to cause the madness which it was 
intended to cure. 



280 ROAD, TKACK, AND STABLE. 

Often, indeed, it requires the eye of a skilled horse- 
man to detect the merit and high breeding of a mare 
fresh from the desert, in her winter coat and winter 
condition. An old traveller relates how such a mare, 
sent by a Nedji prince to an Egyptian Pasha, was 
criticised by those who saw her : " Merry were these 
men of settled countries, used to stout hackneys. 
' The carrion ! ' cried one, for indeed she was lean 
and uncurried. ^The Pasha would not accept her,' 
said another. But a Syrian who stood by quietly 
remarked, ' A month at Shem, and she will seem 
better than now.' And some Bedouins who were 
* present declared her worth to be thirty camels." 

It is true, as this traveller sagely declared, that 
men of "settled countries, used to stout hackneys," 
often prefer an inferior horse to the pure-bred Ara- 
bian. The Barb, for example, has a bigger crest and 
is more on the prancing order. 

I have touched already upon the views of the 
Arabo-maniacs. With them the problem of horse- 
breeding is a very simple one, the solution being to 
discard all other breeds as mongrels, and to go back 
to "the primitive horse," the horse of the desert. 
On the other hand, most practical men engaged in 
the business deride this notion. "I cannot help 
thinking," writes one such, " that of all insane ideas 
the maddest is that which some enthusiasts have of 
permanently improving English race horses by an 
admixture of Arab blood, as if the difference between 
the various breeds of horses were not the result of 
climate, selection, stable management, work, and 
training." It is, I believe, a fact — so malleable 
is horseflesh — that a thoroughbred foal, born in 



ARABIAN HORSES. 281 

India, of parents iniijorted from England, bears un- 
mistakable evidence of his birthplace ; and in the 
second or third generation the colonized thorough- 
bred loses all resemblance to the native English 
stock. 

No doubt, as the writer just quoted maintains, the 
race horse of to-day cannot be improved by an infusion 
of Arab blood. He is bigger, faster, than the Arab, 
and could beat him over any distance short of one 
hundred miles \ perhaps indeed over any distance 
whatever. It is probably the same in regard to 
trotting horses ; and yet, as I have mentioned, the 
Arabian formation, especially as it is found in the 
Anazeh family, closely resembles that of a typical 
trotter. Moreover, the Arabian trotting gait seems 
to be much the same as that of our horses. Thus 
Major Upton writes ; " When trotting, the hind legs 
of the Arabian appear to be, and often may be, too 
long, and there is too much reach for a pleasant trot- 
ting pace [not for speed] ; yet with good riding some 
will trot grandly.'*' This is precisely what might be 
said of an American trotter if used as a saddle horse. 
However, the Arabian horses are deficient in trotting 
action forward ; and on the whole it is very doubtful 
if any gain in trotting speed could be made at this 
late day by an Arabian cross. 

But if the object were, not to obtain a race horse, 
either at the running or trotting gait, but to produce 
a family of fine saddle or driving horses, especially 
the former, for general use, then indeed it might be 
well to breed from Arabian stock. Success would be 
certain. The only question would be whether you 
could reach your end the more quickly by this means, 



282 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

or by breeding from the best of our ovvu horses ; and 
this is a problem which nothing short of experiment 
can solve. It must be remembered that no serious 
attempt on a large scale has ever been made in this 
country to raise horses with a view to beiiuty, intelli- 
gence, courage, and soundness ; and these are the 
respects in which the Arabians excel. 

Moreover, the perfectly natural way in which they 
take to jumping, an exercise of which they have not 
the slightest experience in the desert, shows that the 
Arabian horses are entirely harmonious in all their 
parts, and therefore adaptable to any use that might 
be required of them. Lady Anne Blunt relates : 
" The mare I rode on the journey carried me over 
the raised watercourses by the Euphrates in the 
cleverest way in the world j oif and on, without the 
least hanging or hesitation, and always with a foot 
ready to bring down in case of need." One of the 
mares brought home by Mr. Blunt was let loose in 
his park on the night of her arrival, and forthwith 
she jumped the fence, five feet and six inches high. 
The lower rails were then pulled down, and she was 
walked back under tlie top one, a thick, oaken bar, 
several inches higher than her withers. 

Few Arabian horses have been imported to this 
country, especially of late years ; but it is a striking 
fact that, when one hears of some extraordinary feat 
performed by an American horse, it is not infrequent- 
ly added that his dam or grandam, or some more re- 
mote ancestor, was " said to be Arabian." I saw not 
long ago, for instance, in a Maine pasture, a little 
roan mare, not otherwise remarkable in appearance, 
but of a distinctly Arabian cast of countenance. She 



ARABIAN HORSES. 283 

had a nose that would '' go in a pint pot," a neat head, 
fine ears, and a large, intelligent, though wicked eye. 
This little mare is reputed to be a remarkable road- 
ster, and a former owner declares that he once drove 
her from Gardiner to Phillips, Maine, in five hours 
and a half. The distance is fifty-five miles. The dam 
of her grandsire was a half-bred Arab, and the foal at 
her side when I saw them showed even more distinctly 
than its mother the Arab strain in its ancestry. 

The dam of the famous Flora Temple was by a 
^'spotted Arabian horse." Leopard Kose, a spotted 
mare that made a sensation on the track in 1889 and 
1890, winning many races, and getting a record of 
2.15^, was by Killbuck Tom, and he by a circus 
horse said to be of Ai*ab descent. Numerous like 
instances might be cited. Of course, no pure Arabian 
was ever " spotted," but I am inclined to think that 
some at least of the animals thus described had 
Arabian blood in their veins. Still, the point is 
doubtful. 

One of the best roadsters in Maine of recent years 
was a mare descended from '^ Royal Tar," a mysterious 
white stallion who is said to have swum ashore from 
a vessel wrecked near Eggemoggin Reach, and who 
not improbably was of Eastern birth. 

The grandam of this roadster is described as an 
" ordinary " black mare, and her sire w^as Tom Knox, 
a black horse: but she, like her dam, inherited the 
white color of her grandsire, Ro3^al Tar. She was 
once driven eighty-seven miles in a day of fourteen 
hours, hauling two people in a top buggy, doing the 
last thirty-six miles in four hours, and winding up 
with a race of some miles down the road from Bucks- 



284 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

port to Bangor, which she won. This mare weighed 
about nine hundred pounds ; her back was very short ; 
her eyes were "large and expressive"; she was low- 
headed, and a hard puller. I ought not, however, to 
speak of her in the past tense, for my informant adds 
" She is now nineteen years old, and has n't seen a 
windpuff." 

An old gentleman who has owned many valuable 
horses told me lately that the best and most intelli- 
gent of them all was a medium-sized gelding, with a 
dash of Arab blood. One very hot day he drove this 
horse sixty miles in a heavy buggy, putting up toward 
night at the house of a friend. After the nag had 
thoroughly cooled off, the negro groom in charge 
mounted and took him out for a bath in a neighboring 
river. The horse enjoyed it so much that he swam 
hither and thither for a considerable distance with 
the darkey on his back, and, finally coming ashore, 
he finished the da3^'s work by taking the bit in his 
teeth and running away on the high road for three or 
four miles out of pure lightness of heel and heart. 
" Massa," said the negro, when he led this extraordi- 
nary animal to the door on the following morning, 
not daring to get in the vehicle and drive, *• Massa, 
this boss am de debil ! " 

One experiment now making in this country with 
regard to Arabian horses deserves mention. Mr. 
Eandoph Huntington is a veteran horseman, whose 
devotion to the Henry Clay family of trotte\'S (de- 
scended from the Barb, Grand Bashaw) and to the 
Arabian horse may be described without exaggeration 
as heroic. I have quoted in a previous chapter his 
description of old Henry Clay. For many years the 



ARABIAN HORSES. 285 

Clays were the victims of prejudice, the result partly 
of ignorance, partly of designed misrepresentation ; 
and Mr. Huntington, like the horses that he loved, 
was a perpetual target for ridicule and abuse. Of 
late, however, the value of this strain has asserted 
itself so clearly that it cannot be denied by the most 
envious person. Mr. Huntington owns the Anazeh 
mare Xaomi, and he has established a stock company, 
with headquarters on Long Island, for the purpose of 
breeding a family of Clay-Arabian horses. What 
may be the capacity of these Clay-Arabians, as they 
are called, I do not know, but some of them are ani- 
mals of extreme beauty and finish, as symmetrical as 
their Oriental ancestors, and much larger. 

As an Arabo-maniac, Mr. Huntington has stood 
almost alone in this country. He had one predeces- 
sor, a Kentucky gentleman, a breeder of running 
horses, who staked his fortune and his hopes upon 
the success of his Arabian stud. Twice this man 
visited the desert to buy horses, having become con- 
vinced that on his first attempt he obtained none of 
the pure breed. The enterprise was a failure, and he 
died bankrupt and broken-hearted. 

It would be interesting to know how far the Arabo- 
maniacs have been influenced, unwittingly of course, 
by the halo of romance which surrounds the courser 
of the desert. At all events, it is a generous enthusi- 
asm which this far-away steed kindles in the breasts 
of his few and scattered devotees among English- 
speaking people. The passion for horseflesh is, I 
hold, a sort of divine madness ; and Arabo-mania is 
one form of it. Let us deal with it gently. 




XI. 



THE CARE OF HORSES. 



SO many treatises have been written concerning 
the horse and his stable that I should do bet- 
ter, some critics might think, to let the matter alone. 
But my excuse is this : I do not mean to write a 
treatise, but only a chapter; and, unless my knowl- 
edge of horse books is at fault, the modest task of 
putting the essentials of the subject in so brief a 
form has never yet been attempted. The present 
essay will contain no long Latin words, no medical 
terms, no vague prescriptions ; it will merely treat of 
those commonplace things which more learned au- 
thors are apt to omit. Nor do I pretend to write for 
the typical horseman, who would scorn to obtain in- 
formation from the printed page. He knows already 
all that man can know. I have not forgotten the 



THE CARE OF HORSES. 287 

auger and contempt with wliicli a certain blacksmith, 
a good mechanic, moreover, once told me of a present 
that he had just received from a grateful customer. 
It was a work on the diseases of the hoof, written by 
a Vet of five times his experience and ten times his 
information. " To think," he exclaimed, in the tone 
of one whose pride had received a wanton insult, — 
"to think that any book could teach me anything 
about the foot of a hoss ! " 

Now I fear that we horsemen are all more or less 
like this blacksmith ; and accordingly I address my- 
self, not to the craft, but to the ordinary horse owner, 
who has acquired no special knowledge of the animal, 
and who does not enjoy the services of a stud-groom. 
Nevertheless, I make bold to say that among the fol- 
lowing pages will be found a few original remarks, 
worthy the attention even of a horseman. It would 
be odd indeed had I failed to pick up an idea or two 
concerning matters that lie so near my heart. And 
here I might repeat what was said to me last sum- 
mer by a middle-aged farmer, a rough, grizzle-headed 
"Down-easter." We stood in his barnyard on a 
pleasant Sunday afternoon, wliile a weanling filly 
— whose high merits had just been pointed out — 
contentedly chewed an enormous and horny thumb 
extended by her master for that purpose. Suddenly 
the farmer turned to me, — being careful, however, 
not to disengage his thumb, — and remarked, with 
an obvious and unusual effort at introspection, "I 
like a good horse awful well!" So do I,— so, I 
am persuaded, does the reader, — and accordingly, 
with his permission, we will put on our hats, and 
saunter out to 



288 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

The Stable. 

The first tHing to notice is that the occupants poke 
their heads out as we approach. This means that 
they are kept in box stalls, and are accustomed to 
be petted and to be fed with apples, carrots, and other 
equine dainties. I am a believer in box stalls. A 
horse loose in his box — and he should not be tied 
unless for some special reason — gets an appreciable 
amount of exercise in walking about his quarters. 
The difference in this respect is so great that often 
a horse, whose legs stock in a straight stall, will re- 
main perfectly smooth if he be given the run of a 
loose box. So also, the animal in a box stall, having 
more freedom of movement, is much less likely to 
take to kicking, cribbing, or weaving, — all these 
vices being induced by ennui and restlessness. But 
the chief advantage of a box stall is that it gives the 
horse more opportunity to lie down, to stretch him- 
self, and to roll. He likes to lie, as a dog does, 
with his head flat on the ground, and with all four 
legs stretched out at length, and this attitude is 
impossible in a straight stall unless it be extraordi- 
narily wide. Every stable should contain at least 
one box stall, to be occupied by the horses in turn, 
or in case of illness. 

The more a horse lies down, the longer will his legs 
and feet last. Therefore, in a straight as well as in 
a box stall there should always be bedding under the 
horse, and, if tied at all, he should be so tied that 
he can lie down at ease. It is a common, almost an 
invariable, fault of grooms to tie up their horses too 
short, lest they should get cast. But with nine horses 



THE CARE OF HORSES. 289 

out of ten — forty-nine out of lifty, 1 think 1 might 
say — this precaution is unnecessary. In straight 
stalls I tie my horses so that they can rest their 
heads flat on the floor, and I have never had one 
injured by so doing. In many stables, if an animal 
is seen to lie down in the daytime, it is at once con- 
cluded that he must be ill. But give a horse beddino- 
and sufficient halter rope, and it will soon become 
habitual with him to lie down for a part of the day 
as well as of the night. I have noticed especially 
that horses like to recline in the morning, after they 
have finished eating, comfortably snoozing while they 
digest their breakfast. Horses that are out of the 
stable all day, such as cart and hack horses, should 
always have their hay at night on the floor of the 
stall, in order that they may eat and lie down at the 
same time. This plan, as we have seen, is usually 
pursued with fire horses, and its advantages are plain. 
The disadvantage of the method is that it would, in 
some cases, entail a waste of fodder, but the waste 
would be slight. 

I do not quite share the modern prejudice against 
the old-fashioned hay-rack. It is dangerous, the au- 
thorities say, because hay-seeds are likely to fall from 
it into the animaPs eyes. This may be so, but I 
never heard or read of any such actual case. The 
disadvantage of a hay-rack placed on the floor is 
that the horse can eat from it easily and quickly; 
whereas with the high hay-rack, protected by numer- 
ous bars, he has some little difficulty in pulling out 
his fodder, and hence will be longer in consuming it, 
thus facilitating digestion, and giving him something 
to do. The best arrangement, it seems to me, would 

19 



290 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

be a rack placed at a medium height, and well de- 
fended by bars or slats. 

By this time, however, I assume that the reader 
and myself have i:)\it our heads over the first door, 
and are looking inside the stalls. There are live 
in this row, and the solid partitions between them 
run up to a height of less than a foot beyond tlie 
withers of an ordinary sized horse. At that point 
the partition is continued by three horizontal rails, to 
prevent neighbors from biting each other. An iron 
network would be better, perhaps, but 1 used a dis- 
carded lightning rod which happened to be on hand. 
Thus, a clear space over all the stalls is obtained for 
light and air, and more especially for social purposes. 
A horse should always be able to see his neighbor; 
and if there is but one loose box in a stable, it should 
be contiguous to the straight stalls. A horse shut up 
in a box stall, made, as it sometimes is, with a solid 
door and but one small window, is forlorn and un- 
happy. In some stables the partitions between the 
loose boxes are composed entirely of iron network, — 
a good arrangement unless it should render the stalls 
draughty. 

The reader will observe that my loose boxes face 
the south, that there is a window in each, and that 
the door is cut in two, having an upper and a lower 
part. Thus, the temperature can be regulated in a 
considerable degree. Good dimensions for a loose box 
to contain a horse of medium size are twelve feet b}' 
twelve, but a box ten feet by ten, or perhaps even 
smaller, would be better than a straight stall. Mr. 
G. Tattersall states the proper size of a hunter's box 
as twenty -two feet long and thirteen feet wide. In 



THE CARE OF HORSES. 291 

a recent work will be found a plan for making loose 
boxes convertible at will to straight stalls.^ 

If the latter are used, they should be as wide 
as possible; and they should be long, not less than 
twelve feet. Short stalls have three disadvantages : 
they allow two contiguous horses to kick each other, 
— a possible but infrequent evil; they fail to protect 
the hind legs from draughts ; and, worst of all, they 
enable the occupant to stand with the toes of his 
hind feet in the gutter, which usually runs behind the 
stalls. This is a bad position, being certain, if long 
continued, to result in a straining of the cords and 
muscles of the pastern. It is said in all horse books 
that the stall should slope backward but a trifle, only 
just enough for purposes of drainage ; but I go fur- 
ther, and declare that it ought not to slope at all. I 
believe that the natural position of a horse is with his 
fore legs actually lower than his hind legs, and cer- 
tainly he should never be put in a stall where his 
fore legs must stand in the least degree higher than 
his hind legs. 

Perfect cleanliness can be obtained by having the 
stall floored with slate, sloping as much as may be 
desired. On the top of this is laid a removable floor 
of wooden or metal slats, so supported that it is ex- 
actly level. On this the horse stands, and, as it is 
easily taken up, the slate floor can be flushed with 
water every morning. It may be doubted if a stable 
should ever have a pipe or gutter connecting with a 
sewer, the danger of its becoming clogged is so great. 

1 " Stable Building and Stable Fitting," by Giraud. London : 
B. T. Batsford, 1891. 



292 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

The bedding, acting as an absorbent, should always 
be the main reliance for drainage. 

The necessity of sunlight in a stable is now so well 
understood that it need not be dwelt upon. The 
horse, having a peculiarly tine organization, is espe- 
cially sensitive to the presence or absence of sunshine. 
A good Vet will never perform an operation on a 
cloudy day if it be possible to postpone it ; and where 
distemper, or any other disease, runs through a stable, 
it will, I believe, invariably be found that the lightest 
cases and quickest recoveries occur in the stalls that 
receive the most sunshine, although none of them 
may be actually dark. So also it is now commonly 
understood that stables should be cool, — a truth 
which English horsemen have been very slow to learn. 
Even " Nimrod," an advanced writer with new and 
sensible theories about hunters, thought that horses 
could hardly be kept in the pink of condition if the 
temperature of their quarters fell much below seven- 
ty-five degrees ! To their hot, ill ventilated stables 
many English writers ascribe the former excessive 
prevalence of roaring, now fast decreasing in Eng- 
land, and in this country almost unknovv^n. 

A temperature of fifty-five degrees is not far from 
the right one in winter, and any degree of cold above 
freezing will be borne by horses with perfect comfort, 
provided they are well blanketed. The real enemy of 
the horse is not cold, but dampness ; and against that 
he is to be defended at all points. If a horse begins 
to cough, let him be put in the sunniest, driest part 
of the stable, and he will recover the sooner, even 
though his new situation- be much cooler than the old 
one. Dogs in damp kennels always have rheumatism, 



THE CARE OF HORSES. 293 

and horses have even less affinity than dogs for 
dampness. Dryness of climate, says a recent writer, 
" is the great factor in producing not only sound feet, 
but sound limbs, tendons, and bone." However, it is 
time to look a little closer at our stalls, and to see 
what they contain in the way of 

Bedding. 

Here is a gamy-looking black mare standing on a 
deep bed of dark brown stuff which might be, and 
indeed has been, mistaken by the unsophisticated for 
a muck-heap. I need hardly say that it is peat-moss. 
It is not nice to look at, and one would rather see his 
horses knee deep in golden straw ; but it has this 
great advantage : it cannot be eaten even b} the most 
voracious animal, and consequently it is suitable for 
horses that devour their bedding and get too fat. 
Moreover, it keeps the feet soft. No horse bedded 
with peat-moss ever requires to have his feet stopped ; 
and it is invaluable in cases where the hoof is defect- 
ive or deficient, and needs to be " grown out." Fur- 
ther, it is free from odor, and incombustible. Some- 
times peat-moss renders the frog too soft, so that the 
horse, especially if he be used unshod, is apt to be- 
come foot-sore, but this bad effect might always be 
avoided by a frequent renewal of the peat-moss. 

And this brings us to the question of expense. The 
material costs about $2.50 per bale, and each bale will 
supply one box stall or two straight stalls. The peat- 
moss should be forked over every day to mix the wet 
and the dry. But how long does it last ? That de- 
pends almost entirely upon the habit of the particular 
horse in eating his hay ; if he eats it up clean, the 



294 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

peat-moss bedding will last a long time. The black 
mare before us was bedded down seven weeks ago, 
and her bed will last a week or two yet, perhaps 
longer. Other horses, that scatter their hay and 
trample it under foot, need a fresh bale every two 
or three weeks, and perhaps the average time that 
it lasts in good condition is four weeks. Thus it 
appears, on the whole, that peat-moss is a cheap form 
of bedding. 

In summer, sawdust frequently renewed makes a 
good bed, but it is too cold for winter, except as a sub- 
stratum with straw on top. Where I live "meadow" 
hay cut near the river can be had for $6 or $7 per 
ton. It is not quite so clean as straw for bedding ; 
but some of it will be eaten by horses, and, unless 
their work is fast work, it forms not only a cheap, but 
also a wholesome food. The best straw for bedding, 
as everybody knows, is rye straw, which usually costs 
about $20 per ton, and is more economical than oat 
straw, which costs about half as much. The bedding 
should of course be well dried in the sun ; meadow 
hay can thus be used twice, oat straw two or three 
times, and rye straw half a dozen times or more. 

Tlie chief points to be observed about bedding are, 
first, that it should always be kept under a horse, for 
the reasons previously stated, and, secondly, that it 
should be used profusely. A horse likes a deep soft 
bed, — such as he does not usually have in New Eng- 
land. An English groom will bed down his horses in 
a manner to make a Yankee stare. But if the truth 
were known, liberal bedding is not only beneficial to 
the horse, it is also economical. If much straw be 
used, it can all be dried, and used again and again, 



THE CARE OF HORSES. 295 

whereas, if the supply be stinted, a large part of it 
will become so dirty as to be incapable of further 
use. Bedding is only less important than 

Feeding. 

Under fed, hard worked horses sometimes fall in the 
street from sheer weakness, induced by want of oats. 
On the other hand, many, perhaps most, gentlemen's 
horses are fed too high. In city stables, especially m 
boarding and club stables, the horses receive too much 
grain and too little hay. Consequently they are apt 
to have a shrunken appearance, and to become what is 
known as "grain-burnt." 

For young horses and colts, hay three times a day, 
and plenty of it, is indispensable. The physiological 
reason for this was well stated by Hiram Woodruff, 
as follows: "In order to thrive, the horse, young or 
old, must not only have his stomach supplied with a 
sufficient quantity of nutritious food, but also with 
enough matter not so highly nutritious to distend it. 
A horse or a colt fed only on the substances which 
go to make up his substance would starve, though you 
gave them to him in the greatest abundance." And 
he adds, on the same subject -. " While the animal is 
young, a good distention of the stomach is calculated 
to produce that roundness of rib which we see in 
so many of our best horses. Now this capacity of 
the carcass ... is not going to be obtained by the 
feeding of food in the concentrated shape. Bulk 
is required, and the pulp and essence need not be 
given in large quantity until the organization is 
formed, and extraordinary exertion is required of 
the horse." 



296 ROAD. TRACK, AND STABLE. 

"Make your head early, my boy," was a piece of 
advice solemnly given to me by an old toper, when I 
was about twelve years of age ; and if I were to ad- 
monish a colt in the same spirit, I should say to him, 
" Make your stomach early." 

Much benefit is often obtained from a change of 
food. Thus, if a horse does not do well on oats and 
hay, he may be tried w^ith provender in place of oats. 
" Provender," as the term is used hereabout, means 
oats and corn ground up together ; and sometimes 
the mixture is subjected by the miller to a steaming 
or cooking process, with good results. This is of 
course a heavier food than oats, and more fatten- 
ing ; but it may safely be given in cold weather. In 
cold weather, also, a little whole corn (cracked corn 
is always to be avoided) can be fed to advantage. A 
pint of corn in two or three quarts of bran, made into 
a mash w4th boiling water, constitutes an excellent 
supper on a wintry night for horses that are doing 
very little work. But for riding and driving horses, 
the chief reliance in the way of grain, year in and 
year out, must be oats. 

As to the quantity proper to be given, no rules 
can be laid down, because horses differ so much in 
this respect. Here, for example, if the reader will 
accompany me to the end of the row, are two contig- 
uous stalls occupied respectively by a big bay mare 
and a small black one. The bay mare is a handsome 
creature, with an aristocratic head, large mild eyes, 
and hunter-like legs ; but her back is too long, the 
coupling is loose, and her constitution is soft. The 
black mare, on the contrary, is a short-backed, com- 
pact, tough, wiry animal, and she will do twice the 



THE CARE OF HORSES. 297 

work of the bay mare on exactly half the food. This 
bay mare has another peculiarity, she bolts her oats 
without stopping to chew them. To correct this, an 
old bridle is always kept hanging at the door of the 
stall, and when her oats are given to her the bit is 
slipped in her mouth. It would be well also, in the 
case of such horses, when kept in loose boxes, to 
have a manger made in the shape of a long narrow 
trough, running the length of the stall. If the oats 
were scattered over this manger, an additional hin- 
drance to bolting them would be provided. A " slow 
feeding" manger has been patented, and is now on 
the market, which accomplishes the same object by 
doling out the oats through a small aperture. 

Ground oats can sometimes be fed with advantage, 
but a horse that bolts his grain is apt to be a " soft " 
horse, and to feed him on ground oats would aggravate 
this tendency. Not long since, I happened to take 
up a disquisition on pigs, and my eye fell upon this 
passage : "A hog ought to eat his food up clean, but 
he ought not to make a mad rush for the trough ; 
that shows an inferior constitution," I believe that 
this remark is equally true of horses. 

After what I have saul of the two animals just 
mentioned, the reader will hardly need to be told 
that the bay mare seldom if ever requires a bran 
mash ; whereas the black mare has one twice a week 
through the winter, when grass is not obtainable. 
The office of a bran mash is to loosen the bowels, cool 
the blood, and purify the system. At the close of a 
long, hot day's work, give a horse a good cleaning, a 
bran mash, and a soft bed, and it is wonderful how 
fresh he will come out in the morning. And here — at 



298 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

the risk of causing some horsy person to throw down 
my book in disgust — I will state this elementary 
fact ; A bran mash,^ consisting ordinarily of six 
quarts, is made by pouring boiling water upon the 
bran, stirring it, and then covering it with a thick 
cloth or otherwise, and letting it steam for fifteen 
or twenty minutes. The cloth may then be removed 
and the bran given to the horse, in winter while it 
is still warm, in summer when it is cool. 

All tough healthy horses need bran, or its equiva- 
lent. In fact, this general proposition may be laid 
down : strong horses kept on stable food have a ten- 
dency to tightness of the bowels, just as delicate 
horses have the opposite tendency. In the latter case, 
a simple remedy, to be used whenever necessary, is a 
cupful of ordinary wheat flour mixed with the grain 
or put in a pail of water. In some stables the horses 
are " salted " when they receive a bran mash ; but 
the better plan is always to have a lump of rock salt 
in a little rack by itself, where it will not contaminate 
the oats. Thus the horse can help himself according 
to his needs. When salt is given only occasionally, 
the animal is sure to take a great deal, and to follow 
it up by drinking immoderately of cold water. Colic 
has often been caused in this manner. 

Bran is a kind of artificial grass, and in summer I 
prefer to let my horses graze a little, or, if this be 
impracticable, to have grass cut for them, which they 
like much less. Not many years ago it would have 
been thought madness to give grass to a horse in full 
training ; but this is done nowadays with great benefit 

1 I use the generic term "bran," but I mean "shorts," which 
have more body than bran. 



THE CARE OF HORSES. 299 

in the case both of rimuers and trotters. If possible, 
let the horse graze in the early morning, while the 
blades are still wet. The grass is sweeter and more 
juicy at this time, and the dew is an excellent med- 
icine for the feet. 

When horses have their shoes removed and are 
turned out to pasture, care should be taken not to 
make the change too sudden. Many a fine animal has 
been killed by direct transition from a warm stable 
and blankets to the open air and cold ground. Let 
the blankets be taken off wdiile the horse is still kept 
under cover ; and turn him out at night for the first 
time. If he is turned out in the morning, he will 
feed all day, and at night-time lie down, and, very 
likely, catch cold ; but if he is turned out hungry at 
night, he will keep on his feet all or nearly all the 
time till morning ; and the first night is of course the 
dangerous one. Another good plan is to take the 
horse in the first night just before you go to bed ; and 
finally, it is practicable to turn a horse out blanketed. 
A second surcingle sewed to the blanket and passing 
around the flanks can be used. A horse in active 
service can thus be given a night out with safety. 

Now, however, as T observe that the reader is be- 
coming bored, we will move on to the grooming-room ; 
but as we pass by the hay-mows I cannot refrain from 
this remark : the popular notion that horses like 
coarse hay best, and thrive best upon it, is a huge 
mistake. The second or third quality of hay as it 
would be deemed in respect to coarseness is the best. 
Xine city horsemen out of ten, I am aware, would 
deny this proposition ; but the tenth is the man who 
has tried the experiment. 



300 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

But here we are at the watering trough, and despite 
my implied promise, I shall button-hole the reader 
for a moment more before we leave the main stable. 
Horses require water that is pure and soft. Many 
well-bred nags will not drink from a pail in which 
another animal has already had his nose. The Arabs 
regard pure water as of the highest importance ; 
and they do not hesitate to risk their lives, as by 
leaving camp at night when the enemy is near, in 
order to water their horses at some fresh spring of 
which they have knowledge. This is the form in 
which they describe a man of thoroughly bad and 
contemptible character : — 

" His horse drinks troubled water. 
And his covering is full of holes." 

The oftener a horse drinks in the course of the 
day, the less he will drink. Therefore, the best plan 
is to have water always before him at his meals. It 
was found by experiment at the Duke of Beaufort's 
stables, that under this, the modern system, a horse 
drank only five gallons, whereas, when watered but 
twice during the day, he drank eight gallons.^ Of 
course, if the comparison had been made with three 
instead of two waterings a day, the discrepancy would 
not have been so great. At Badminton, I believe, 
slate troughs are used for this purpose. A better 
plan, perhaps would be to have pail-holders fixed 
alongside the grain mangers. Then a pail of fresh 
water could be put in whenever the horse was fed. 

1 From this it seems necessary to infer that formerly at Bad- 
mington horses were watered but twice a day, although it is 
difficult to believe that so preposterous a system was practised. 



THE CARE OF HORSES. 301 

With a permanent watering trougli in the stall, there 
must be danger of the water becoming stale, and also 
of the horse's drinking from it when he comes in 
heated by his work. 

The next best thing to having water constantly 
before the horse at his meals is to give it to him 
frequently, four times a day being the minimuHi. 
Should he be watered before or after eating ? All 
the books say before, but in this country the almost 
universal practice is to give it afterward. The the- 
ory of the books is, that, when a horse is watered after 
his feed of grain, the water tends to wash the latter 
out of his stomach, where it should digest, to the gut 
or second stomach. But it seems to be more natural 
for the horse, as it is for man, to drink after eating 
rather than before, provided he cannot drink while 
eating, A horse who is both hungry and thirsty will 
refuse water until he has had food. There is another 
consideration whicb I have never seen mentioned, 
namely, that a horse is likely to eat his grain more 
slowly, and to chew it better, if he is thirsty, than if 
he has just been watered. My own way is to water 
him after he has eaten his grain, and before he has 
his hay. At Palo Alto the horses are watered twO' 
hours after eating. Whatever the system adopted, 
there is one time at which almost all horses like to 
drink, and that is about nine or ten at night, when the 
stable is, or should be, visited by the groom or master, 
the beds arranged if they need it, surcingles looked 
to, and the horses watered. 

As to watering on the road, very good horsemen 
differ widely in their practice, some eschewing water- 
ing troughs almost altogether, whereas others drive 



302 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

up to every trough, aud let the horse drink his fill. 
Neither example, in my opinion, should be followed. 
The best way is to water the roadster often in hot 
weather, but to give him only a little at a time ; in 
cold weather, less often. Some horses indeed can be 
allowed with impunity to drink all they want ; well- 
bred nags especially, although they like to plunge 
their noses deep in the trough, do not often drink to 
excess. However, by watching the effect of water 
upon his horse's bowels, the driver will soon learn 
how to treat him in this respect. 

Even in the stable certain soft horses, whose blood 
is apt to be heated, should have their appetite for 
water restrained ; they like the feeling of it going 
down their throats, and will drink greedily. It would 
be well if such animals were always bitted before be- 
ing watered ; thus they would be compelled to drink 
sjowly, and a less quantity would satisfy them. As a 
rule, the healthiest horses drink the least. More than 
one good pailful should never be given at a time to 
any horse. But let there be no interference with 
nature in respect to water without good reason. Be- 
yond doubt, some ignorant and fanciful grooms keep 
their charges in torment for want of it. 

One general remark more, and then the reader shall 
be allowed to escape from the vicinity of the trough : 
very cold water should always be tempered before it 
is given to a horse, especially in summer. Now let 
us enter the small room in front, whence proceeds 
that periodic whang of the currycomb on the floor, 
which indicates that within goes on the important 
process of 



THE CARE OF HORSES. 303 

Grooming. 

The necessary tools are a currycomb and the brush 
that accompanies it, a mane brush, a good, soft cloth, 
a scraper, towels, a pick for the feet, sponges, and a 
pail. To these may be added with advantage a softer 
brush, almost like a hat brush, and a chamois skin. 
Combs and cards should be banished to the cow sta- 
ble. To discriminate a good groom from a bad one 
is a matter for the experienced eye of about fifteen 
seconds. If a man undertakes to clean your horse, 
whatever the circumstances, without first removing 
his coat, you may be sure that he is a sluggard and 
an impostor. The retention of his waistcoat even 
gives reasonable ground for suspicion, and the real 
workman is almost sure to let down his suspenders 
and roll up his sleeves. When, as will happen some- 
times at a New England tavern, a young man wearing 
spectacles, and with the languid air of a divinity stu- 
dent, looks after the stable, I take off my own coat. 

There are four places in especial on the horse which 
a lazy or incompetent groom will neglect, and which 
may be examined as a criterion. These are the inside 
of his ears, the crevice, so to say, under his jaws, the 
inside of his hind quarters, and the part under his 
tail, which should be cleaned with a wet sponge at 
least once a day, for much dust and dandruff collect 
there. The root of the mane is also frequently a 
neglected spot. 

Perhaps the cardinal principle in grooming is this : 
the currycomb should not be employed on the horse, 
but on the brush. Now the ordinary horse owner will 
declare that this statement is applicable only to the 



304 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

stables of rich men, where grooms are abundant ; 
and such, I confess, was long my opinion. But when 
finally I tried the experiment with my own hands, I 
quickly discovered the mistake. The truth is, that a 
horse can be cleaned not only much better, but much 
quicker, without the currycomb, used upon him, than 
with it ; the reason being that the currycomb applied 
to his skin irritates it, and therefore produces more 
dandruff than it removes. The true way to clean the 
horse is to rub him round and round with the brush ; 
and to supplement this by smoothing down the hair 
with a cloth or a chamois skin, or both. Thus he 
can be made and kept perfectly clean. Even a mane 
brush is too severe for a very fine-coated animal. An 
Indian Sayce does his work almost entirely with the 
palms of his hands. A wet wisp of hay or straw 
is very effective in taking up dandruff ; but the main 
reliance must be the currycomb brush. 

"If a horse is clean," writes Major Fisher,^ ''no 
scurf or grease of any kind should ever adhere to the 
hand when rubbed over the skin. If your groom 
assures you to the contrary, and says that you must 
expect a little, he lies, and knows it too." 

It is related of Mr. Jefferson that he was accus- 
tomed at Monticello, his Virginia home, whenever a 
horse was brought round from the stables for his 
morning ride, to rub the animal's coat with a cambric 
handkerchief, and if any grease or dirt appeared on 
it, the negro groom was reprimanded, and the horse 
sent back to the stables. 

1 Author of " Through Stable and Saddle-Room," perhaps 
the most practical work on the subject of horse-keeping ever 
published. 



thp: care of horses. 305 

Another common mistake relates to the virtues of 
"rubbing down." On a hot day, for example, a trav- 
eller arriving at his destination flings the reins to the 
hostler, and tells him to give the horse "a good rub- 
bing down." But what the animal needs is to cool 
off, whereas rubbing tends to heat. A better treat- 
ment would be as follows. Take off the harness, and 
immediately sponge with cold water the parts under 
the collar or breastplate and under the saddle. Thus, 
and thus only, are sore backs and shoulders prevented. 
If there is any swelling, or as a precaution in hot 
weather, it is well to use arnica and water, in the 
proportion of two to one. Next sponge his nostrils 
and dock ; then with a damp, but by no means a wet 
sponge, wipe the dust from his whole body ; and, 
finally, let him drink two swallows of fresh water, 
and put him in a stall with plenty of bedding. When 
thoroughly cool he may be w^atered moderately, then 
fed, then groomed, watered again, and put to bed. It 
is best, of course, especially in hot weather, to have 
the horse walked about awhile instead of being put 
in his stall at once.^ 

I remember seeing, years ago, a perfect illustration 
of what might be called fanatical rubbing down. It 
was in a trotting race of many heats, one of the com- 
petitors being a little bay stallion, much noted at the 
time, called William H. Allen. The practice then was 
to rub the horses dry with towels between heats, and 

1 " When a Journey has heen long continued and severe, the 
horse should not be immediately put into a stable, but ought to 
be walked gently al)()ut until the circulation of blood in the feet has 
had time to accommodate itself to the altered conditions of rest. 
By this means laminitis (inflammation of the feet) is averted.'" 
Mr. George Fleming, F. R. G. S. 

20 



306 EOAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

William H. Allen was led under a tree for that pur- 
pose. But being a nervous horse, and his skin doubt- 
less being tender from continual rubbing, he strongly 
objected to the practice, and spent the whole time of 
what should have been his intervals of rest in vain 
attempts to kick his tormentors, lashing out at them 
with his hind legs, and pawing and striking with his 
fore legs. He lost the race, partly perhaps because 
he was handicapped by these unnecessary exertions. 
The practice nowadays is, after a brief scraping and 
drying, with the application of liniment and some- 
times the bandaging of the legs, to walk the horse 
about, blanketed according to the weather. 

After very long drives 1 rub my nags' legs with a 
strong solution of arnica and water, or, perhaps bet- 
ter, with a mixture of arnica, Xew England rum, and 
water in about equal parts. Alcohol is of course the 
essential ingredient. This should be applied from a 
point above the hock or knee to the foot, and on all 
sides of the leg ; it tends to prevent spavin, curb, and 
windgalls. There is nothing like rubbing of the legs 
for a tired horse. The animal stands in his stall 
with drooping head, eyes nearly closed, and appetite 
gone.^ Now take him in hand, clean him well but 
quickly, then gently pull his ears, and rub his legs 
for half an hour if necessary, not up and down, but 
downward so as to induce a proper circulation of 
the blood, and to soothe the muscles. Before long 
his eyes will open, his head will be raised, his ears 
pricked forward, and you will soon have the satisfac- 
tion of seeing him munch his hay. 

1 I have seen horses in this condition, but not as the result of 
my own driving. 



THE CARE OF HORSES. 307 

In cold weather the advantages of rubbing down 
are more real ; but if the horse be in a sweat, and the 
stable be cool, there is danger in the process, unless 
three or four men can be employed in it. " The horse 
must immediately be rubbed dry, when he comes in," 
say most of the books ; but in the mean time, for it 
cannot be done in a moment, the horse catches cold. 
The better way is to let him stand for a minute or 
five minutes, according to the temperature, and "steam 
off," then blanket him, and rub his head and neck dry. 
Every stable should have at least one hood, to be used, 
for example, when a horse goes to the blacksmith shop 
in excessively cold weather, and more especially to be 
used in the stable. In cold weather, whenever a 
horse comes in thoroughly wet, either with rain or 
sweat, I put on a hood, removing it as soon as the 
hair is dry. If the whole body be wet with rain, one 
thick blanket should be put on, to be followed in 
about five minutes by another, and perhaps two more, 
for under these circumstances heav}^ blanketing is 
necessary. The water will go to the top blanket, 
leaving the one next to the horse perfectly dry, — al- 
though this result is the opposite of that which the 
inexperienced ^oerson would expect. 

And how about the legs ? Their proper treatment 
is summed up in the old stable aphorism: "If they 
are wet, dry them ; if they are dry, leave them dry." 
Nothing could be more irrational than the practice, 
formerly common and not yet extinguished, of sluicing 
the horse's legs with water immediately on his coming 
into the stable. This might perhaps be done without 
harm, if the legs could be dried at once after the 
washing ; but this operation would be a long one, and 



808 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

nine times out of ten it would be slurred. Windgalls 
occur far more frequently in hot weather than in cold 
weather, and by way of preventing or reducing them 
I think it well to wash the horse's legs on very hot 
days, provided that he is perfectly cool at the time. 

But no matter how muddy the going may be, the 
legs ought not to be washed on that account. My 
method is to brush off so much of the mud as will 
come off, and then to have the legs bandaged, but not 
tightly, with flannel or woollen bandages, to be left 
on, usually half an hour or more, till the hair is per- 
fectly dry. Then they are taken off, and the legs 
brushed and rubbed clean. ^ Care should be taken to 
have the bandages come down low, so as to cover 
the hollow place back of the fetlock joint where 
"scratches" appear. If this method be pursued, 
and if plenty of vaseline be used on the heels, and 
in the spot just mentioned, reinforced occasionally 
by glycerine, say once a week, scratches and mud 
fever can be avoided absolutely. 

From the legs of the horse, it is a natural transi- 
tion to 

The Foot. 

Extreme dryness and extreme moisture are the chief 
enemies of the equine foot, and they both produce 
thrush, which is a kind of white decay, indicated by a 
peculiar and offensive odor. Commonly it attacks the 
frog, and sometimes the sole of the foot. If taken 
in hand early, it can be cured by the application of 
common salt saturated with petroleum ; and the most 
severe case will yield to a solution of blue vitriol and 

1 This is the plan recommended by Major Fisher. 



THE CARE OF HORSES. 309 

vinegar. The blue vitriol, about two ounces, may be 
put in a quart bottle of water, filled with vinegar, the 
vinegar to be used when it has aquired a rich green 
or blue tinge. It is best applied by jneans of a small 
oil can with a spout. Thus the liquid can be directed 
where it is needed, without touching the sound parts 
of the foot. Tar and many other remedies are also 
used for thrush. 

When the horse is groomed in the morning, his feet 
should be well picked out, and in summer washed. 
In most good stables, the foot is washed also when 
the horse comes in. I have noticed that horses seem 
to enjoy this process ; and a thorough soaking of the 
hoof when they are groomed in the morning, and 
again when they come in after work, will go far to 
keep their feet soft and healthy. Care should be 
taken, especially in winter, that nothing but the hoof 
is wetted. It is very easy for the groom to splash a 
little water on the heels and under the fetlock, and 
thus scratches may be induced. For this reason, the 
safer plan is to omit washing the foot in winter unless 
your groom happens to be absolutely trustworthy. 

At grass, the foot never becomes hard, but when 
the horse stands on straw or wood it is apt to become 
hard and dry, and many horses require to have their 
feet stopped once a week. The time-honored material 
for this purpose is a mixture of cow-dung and earth ; 
but if it be used, the foot should be well washed the 
next morning with soap and water. In city stables, 
oil-meal and bran are commonly employed. A recent 
invention for this object is petrolatum, — a packing 
saturated with petroleum. It comes in pails which 
are sold at $1.50 apiece, and a pail will last a long 



310 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

time. This kind of stuffing is clean, easy to apply, 
and effectual except in extreme cases. When the 
foot is very dry, I do not find that it answers the pur. 
pose. Some authorities, moreover, maintain, and I 
believe rightly, that oil should never be applied to a 
hoof, because it renders the horn brittle, and impairs 
its quality. This is the opinion of Charles Marvin, 
the well known California trainer, whose intelligence 
and great experience with horses give weight to the 
assertion. Mr. George Fleming, also, whose prize 
essay, "Practical Horseshoeing," is the best work 
on its subject that 1 have ever seen, holds the same 
view. 

Another method of " stopping," and a very good 
one, is to put a wet sponge or a handful of moss in 
the hoof, keeping it in place by a small stick, or, 
better yet, by a thin piece of steel, stretched across 
the foot, and inserted under the rim of the shoe. 
Finally, felt pads can be bought for seventy-five cents 
a pair, which are secured to the foot by means of an 
iron toe-piece and a strap and buckle. Thrown into 
a pail of water, these pads will in a few minutes ab- 
sorb moisture enough to last all night; and they are 
convenient to use on a journey. After a very long 
drive, especially in summer, the horse's fore feet 
should be stopped as a matter of course. 

Where shoeing has to be done frequently, as in the 
case of fire horses, it is important that the hoof should 
grow fast, in order to supply the necessary waste of 
horn. Some horses also, as the result of disease, of 
bad shoeing, or of bad formation, have a deficiency 
of hoof. In such cases it is common to apply oil to 
the hoof ; but, as I have stated already, many good 



THE CARE OF HORSES. 311 

authorities condeniii this practice, and I am inclined 
to think that cohl water is better. Wet rags tied 
around the coronet will serve the purpose ; and a 
sponge arrangement for the outside of the hoof can 
be bought. Peat-moss bedding also, as I have said, 
encourages a quick growth of horn ; and probably the 
very best means for this purpose, though one not 
often practicable, is to turn the horse out in a pas- 
ture, part of which is salt marsh. I have known an 
extraordinary growth of hoof to be promoted in this 
manner. 

For rheumatism and sprains, also, sea water is a 
remedy. Its tonic and strengthening effect upon 
horses is remarkable. In one case that fell under my 
observation, a severe lameness in the shoulder of a 
little bay mare was cured by a course of sea baths. 
Her owner took her into the water with him one day 
as an experiment : the mare liked the process, and 
followed her master into the waves every day there- 
after for a month, by which time she had completely 
recovered. 

In another case, a horse received a severe sprain in 
one of the hind ankles. Hot and cold water were ap- 
plied alternately till tlie inflammation disappeared, 
and then a bandage was put on, and kept wet with sea 
water. In four days the ankle was as good as ever. 

I might add here, that, in all cases of sprains, per- 
fect rest is absolutely necessary ; and there is no 
better remedy than cold water, applied by means of 
a linen bandage, continually wetted. But the bandage 
should be taken off at night, for it w^ll become dry in 
an hour's time or less, and in that condition it is heat- 
ing and harmful. For sprain of the hock, or of other 



312 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

parts inaccessible to a bandage, or for a sore back, 
when the skin is not broken, pure alcohol is a remedy 
which I have found efficacious. 

And now I have a word to say about 

Shoeing. 

The first principle of shoeing is, that the foot 
should be reduced by paring or burning only with 
the greatest caution, and in the least possible degree. 
Indeed, some of the latest authorities declare that the 
sole of the foot should never be pared or burned, 
and that the heels should never be '^opened out," 
i. e. that the horn between the bars of the foot and 
the frog should never be cut away. 

But I think that in some exceptional cases the 
sole of the foot should be pared, and that, more fre- 
quently, it is best to "open out" the heels. Of course 
the sole of the foot grows continually, and the theory 
is that the superfluous or old part comes off naturally 
in flakes. But sometimes, especially when the horse 
is shod in such a manner that the bottom of his foot 
is absolutely removed from contact with the ground, 
the sole fails to wear off as fast as nature intended, 
and as a result it begins to encroach upon the frog. 
In such a case it should be pared. And so as to the 
heels. If the heels of a colt be examined, a small 
wedge-like opening will always be found between the 
bars and the frog. Sometimes in old horses this be- 
comes entirely closed, and when that happens, I think 
it should be opened to preserve the normal condition 
of the foot. 

However, as a rule, neither sole, frog, nor bars 
should be touched, and the wall of the foot should 



THE CARE OF HORSES. 313 

be pared only enough to keep it level, and to prevent 
undue length at the toe. The amateur may be sure 
that a blacksmith whose practice is to pare or burn 
the sole of his horse's foot is a bad blacksmith ; and 
he may almost be sure that one who does not pare 
or burn is a good blacksmith. In former days it was 
the custom to pare the sole almost to the quick, for 
absolutely no reason ; and consequently, whenever a 
shoe came off, the horse was immediately disabled. 
The reader of fiction or poetry of the last century, or 
of the first half of the present century, will remember 
that, whenever the traveller's horse cast a shoe, the 
rider was obliged to dismount forthwith, and to lead 
the animal with slow and painful steps to the nearest 
smithy. But if the foot be left undisturbed, protected 
by its cover of horn, the loss of a shoe need not be 
made good for a day or a week. On country roads a 
horse with sound feet should be able to travel for a 
week or so without shoes ; and if he is driven or 
ridden only enough to keep him exercised, he may 
dispense with shoes altogether. This at least is true 
where the roads are soft, but where the roads are 
hard it would not be true. 

On the other hand, the position that no horse ever 
need be shod — which books have been written to 
maintain — is an absurdity. A city dray horse wears 
out every month an iron shoe at least one third of an 
inch thick. Would the horn of his foot last so long ? 
The ordinary growth of horn is only about one quarter 
of an inch per month ; and although the unshod hoof 
may grow somewhat faster, it does not grow fast 
enough to compensate for the wear and tear of ordi- 
nary roads. Horses in the wild state, and horses 



314 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

turned out in stony pastures, frequently become so 
foot-sore that they can hardly step; and before shoes 
were invented regiments of cavalry were sometimes 
disabled from the same cause. Certainly, if shoes 
were not necessary, such a clumsy device as that of 
skins, like sandals, bound about the horse's foot, 
which were once in use, would never have been em- 
ployed. Historians tell us also that plates of metal, 
fastened by strings, served the same purpose for hun- 
dreds of years. Even the mustang's feet lack the 
toughness of iron. " In the mountains," relates Colo- 
nel T. A. Dodge, in a recent paper, "where the sharp, 
flinty stones soon wear down the pony's unshod feet, 
this Indian [the Apache] will shrink raw hide over 
the hoofs, in lieu of shoes, and this resists extremely 
well the attrition of the mountain paths." 

I have even seen it stated in books, that a horse 
unshod can travel on smooth ice better than if he 
were shod with corks. This, I say, has been stated 
as an absolute fact, and elaborate reasons have been 
given for it ; and yet I know from my own experience 
that a barefooted horse is perfectly helpless on smooth 
ice. On rough ice indeed, or on snow-covered roads, he 
will travel fairly well without shoes, stepping shorter^ 
of course, than if he were shod, but on smooth ice he 
cannot take a step with safety. Unshod colts are fre- 
quently lamed by slipping in icy barnyards or fields. 
I remember once narrowly escaping a fall while riding 
a barefooted horse. In the middle of the street, which 
sloped a little to the sidewalk on each side, I had no 
difficulty ; but the horse shied off, struck the smooth 
ice, and we found ourselves skating down toward the 
gutter, with a prospect of tumbling when we reached 



THE CARE OF HORSES. 315 

the bottom ; but just before we brought up against 
the curbstone, I turned the horse's head gently to the 
left, and he, understanding what was wanted, jumped 
lightly to the sidewalk, and so kept his feet. 

The second great principle in shoeing is that the 
foot should be allowed to come as nearly flat to the 
ground as possible.^ The office of the frog is to sus- 
tain a part of the concussion which the foot and leg 
receive when the horse steps ; and this it cannot do 
when the shoe is so built up on corks or otherwise 
that it keeps the frog clear of the ground. When the 
frog is thus deprived of its natural use, the blood fails 
to circulate in it, and it becomes atrophied or diseased. 
In such a case, also, there is apt to be a consequent 
trouble in the legs, for of course the strain upon the 
legs is regulated by the shape and position of the 
hoofs ; and this brings us to the third great principle 
in shoeing, which is, that the horse should stand upon 
his feet in the manner that nature intended. It is 
plain that if his toe be left too long, or pared too 
short, or if the hoof is so treated as to be longer or 
higher on one side than the other, or if the shoe is 
put on too far forward or too far back, — in these 
and in many other cases that might be mentioned, the 
legs do not bear their natural relation to the foot. 
The consequence is that some muscles and tendons of 
the leg do less, and some do more, than their quota of 
work. If, for example, the slope of the hoof in front 
is too great, the back tendons and joints of the limbs 
must be strained. 

Even Maud S. was suffering from swollen fore legs 
and strained tendons when she came into the hands of 

1 See page 249, for the Charlier system of shoeing 



^16 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

Mr. Bonner. But her new owner, who has made a ck)se 
5tudy of the farrier's art, saw at once that she did not 
stand true on her feet. Accordingly, he altered the 
position of her fore shoes, and the swelling forthwith 
disappeared from her legs. Mr. Tionner had a similar 
experience with the great Sunol. For a year after 
his purchase of her she remained at Palo Alto, and a 
few weeks before she made her fast record of 2.08 J 
Mr. Bonner paid the mare a visit. At that time Sunol 
was going slightly lame in one fore foot, when first 
taken out, from some unknown cause. Mr. Bonner 
<?arefully examined the foot, and discovered tliat the 
wall was a trifle higher on one side than on the other. 
This was rectified, and the lameness disappeared, 
^'ow, if a horse can become lame at Palo Alto from 
such a cause, and the cause remain undiscovered, how 
numerous and mischievous must be the cases of bad 
shoeing that occur where nothing more than ordinary 
skill and experience in horseflesh obtain ! 

There are many horses that require the mind and 
eye of a thorough craftsman to shoe them properly ; 
and when thus shod they never interfere or over- 
reach; whereas, if wrongly shod, they can hardly 
take a sound step. When an incompetent smith has 
to deal with such a horse, he commonly begins by 
making a murderous attack on the hoof with his 
knife, and then affixes to it a shoe of extraordinary 
shape. A good workman, on the other hand, never 
makes a shoe the shape of which differs from the 
natural shape of a horse's foot. This, I think, may 
be taken as an axiom, and it supplies a test capable 
of wide application. The competent smith corrects 
interfering or overreaching by contriving a new ad- 



THE carp: op horses. 31T 

justment of shoes to feet, but when his work is done 
it will contain no noticeable peculiarity. 

Some horses require to be shod with short shoes in 
front. I once owned a horse that, if shod too long 
in front, would catch a hind shoe in a fore one, and 
actually throw himself to the ground. It is a common 
fault of smiths to make the shoe too long, — so long, 
in many cases, that it curves in at the heel and almost 
touches the frog ; whereas it ought to go no farther 
than is necessary to protect the wall of the foot from 
contact with the ground. For the same reason, that 
is, in order to let the heels and the frog have free 
play, corks or calkins should not be used in the fore 
shoes of saddle or of light harness horses, — except, of 
course, when the roads are icy, — and it is a question 
whether they are useful on the hind shoes. The ideal 
shoe 1 is the lightest, simplest, smallest piece of metal 
that can be contrived to protect the wall of the foot. 

And now we come to 

Blanketing. 

The horse requires these blankets : a linen or cot- 
ton sheet for summer, to be kept on day and night 
unless the weather is very hot ; a woollen sheet, to be 
used in cool summer weather ; and a thick blanket, 
to be used in cold weather over the linen or woollen 
sheet, according to circumstances. A woollen blanket 
of intermediate weight for fall and spring is a luxury, 
but not quite a necessity. 

^ T?egardefl simply as a means to locomotion. When it is a 
question of " balancinj;" a trotter by means of weight in his shoes, 
another problem is introduced. See page 90. 



318 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

In a cold stable the horse may require in severe 
weather two, or even three and four heavy blankets. 
John Splan sensibly remarks, " If it comes to a cold 
night, and you think you want an extra blanket on 
your own bed, see that the horse has one." 

Beside these individual blankets the stable should 
contain one or more hoods, and coolers, and a rubber 
blanket for cold rains. The office of the hood I have 
already described. The cooler is a long, thin all-wool 
blanket, extending over the neck and fastened by 
safety pins. It is used when the horse comes in 
from work. Horsemen frequently remark, sometimes 
by way of an argument in favor of clipping, that, if 
a horse with a long coat gets thoroughly wet with 
sweat, he will not become dry again for hours, — often, 
in fact, will remain wet through the whole night. 
But when this happens, unless in some exceptional 
case, it is because of wrong management. The cus- 
tom is to put on the animal's heavy clothing at once, 
when he comes in hot, and this causes him to sweat 
profusely and to become unduly heated. The proper 
way is to let him stand for a very short time, three 
or four minutes being the maximum, wdth no blanket, 
then put on the cooler, his legs and fetlocks being pro- 
tected by the straw, in which he stands knee deep, or 
by bandages, and let him so remain until he is dry, or 
until he feels cool to the hand. Then he may resume 
his ordinary heavy clothing. Of course, judgment must 
be used in this process of cooling; and the time during 
which the cooler is employed should vary, according 
to the temperature of the stable and the nature of the 
horse, from five minutes to an hour or more. I have 
never known a horse to take cold under this method. 



THE CARE OF HORSES. 319 

A cheap, warm, and durable blanket can be made of 
canvas or sail-cloth, lined with some woollen material. 
A horse bred in a northern latitude will do very well 
without blankets in winter, — except, of course, that 
one must always be used when he comes in wet from 
rain or sweat, — but he will not look well. His coat 
will be long, and it will " stare," and he will require 
more food than he would need if blanketed. 

When colts or horses are exercised by being turned 
out in a yard or lot, it is safer not to blanket them 
in the stable. If an animal is neither groomed nor 
" covered up," nature supplies him with a thick and 
oily garment. Rub your hand on the hair of a colt at 
pasture, and you will find that it is positively sticky. 
In some parts of Northern New York, and I presume 
in some parts of New England also, it is the custom 
to winter horses in open yards, without sheds, where 
the only shelter is that afforded by the hay-rick which 
supplies them with food. Horses thus exposed to 
extreme cold and wet receive no injury, but they 
must suffer much discomfort, and doubtless the cost 
of a warm shed would soon be made up by econ- 
omy in hay. Of course warm blanketing is absolutely 
necessary when the animal is deprived of his natural 
coat by 

Clipping. 

Clipping, like every other process applicable to 
horseflesh, is grossly abused. To clip a horse that 
is obliged, as, for example, many hack horses are, to 
stand out in all weathers, and for long periods, is a 
great cruelty ; and especially is it cruel under such 
circumstances to clip the legs which cannot be blan- 



320 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 

keted. It is also in some degree cruel, and as I think 
in a high degree absurd, to clip carriage horses in the 
city that are seldom required to go long distances. 
Such animals being kept in warm stables, and being 
warmly clothed, have short coats ; and in these natu- 
ral coats they are far handsomer than in the clipped 
condition. Nevertheless, the common practice is to 
deprive them of their hair. Why ? Doubtless be- 
cause the labor of the groom is thus lightened, and in 
these matters the man rules the master. On the other 
hand, horses that are taken out once a day, driven 
hard and fast, and then brought in again, are usu- 
ally much better for being clipped, since they escape 
the profuse sweating which they would otherwise 
undergo. 

Moreover, especially in early spring, clipping often 
seems to have a valuable tonic effect. Horses that 
were thin and run down have been known to pick up 
with extraordinary rapidity after being clipped. The 
reason doubtless is, that in the clipped condition they 
keep a certain amount of flesh which they would 
otherwise have lost by sweating. Even when a horse 
stands in the stable — to say nothing of his work — he 
perspires ; and if the weather is warmish he perspires 
a great deal, for his heavy blanket is retained till late 
spring or summer. By clipping, this loss of flesh is 
avoided ; and perhaps also the fact that the animal's 
skin is comfortably cool, instead of uncomfortably 
hot, has a direct effect upon his general health. 

But again, under certain conditions, I have no doubt 
that the sweating which a long-coated horse gets is 
beneficial. A moderate amount of sweating is good for 
a horse, as it is for a man, and in the case of an animal 



THE CARE OF HORSES. 321 

that lias very little work, being ridden or driven only 
a few miles every other day, perhaps, — in such a case 
there can be no doubt that a heavy coat, and the con- 
sequent sweating, are advantageous. This is a plain 
consideration, but I have never seen it adverted to 
in any horse book. 

Another point of some importance in deciding 
whether or not to clip your horse is this : Will the 
operation have a permanent effect upon his coat, mak- 
ing it come out earlier, or heavier, or coarser the next 
autumn ? Skilled opinions differ on this point ; but, 
as a general principle, the cutting of hair certainly 
tends to affect its future growth ; and there is no 
reason why this should not be true of horses as of 
other animals. Still, clipping the coat once a year 
probably has only a slight effect, — at least, until it 
has been repeated for some years. 

In fine, whether or not your horse should be clipped 
depends upon his coat, upon the work which he has to 
do, upon the exposure to which he is subjected, and 
in some degree upon the stable where he is kept. If 
you wish to avoid a necessity for clipping him, be 
sure that he has a thick blanket on the first cool 
nights of autumn, even in September : this will tend 
to keep his coat short. 

The operation of clipping should not be performed 
on a damp day, nor on a warm day when the pores of 
the skin are open and there is a consequent liability 
to take cold ; and it need not be said that a clipped 
horse requires at least one more heavy blanket than 
an undipped one. 



322 



ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



And now, having brought these essays to a close, 
I will address to the gentle reader the same remark 
that was made long ago by one of my predecessors in 
the subtle art of horsemanship. He said, — and I 
trust that I have been equally fortunate, — " Lord ! 
If I had always such a nice, attentive person to listen 
to me as you are, I could go on talking about 'orses 
to the end of time." 



"I -'mrl"! 




INDEX. 



INDEX. 



Abbass Pacha, 119, 264. 

Abdallah, 26, 45, 72. 

Abdallah, Alexander's, 29, 72. 

Abdallah, Lakeland, 56. 

Action. See Gait. 

Alcantara, 32. 

Alcohol, uses of, 306, 312. 

Alcyone, 32. 

Aldine, 96. 

Alexander's Abdallah, 29, 72. 

Allen, Ethan, the horse, 44, 45, 68. 

Allen, Ethan, the man, 121. 

Allen, Wm. H., 306. 

Allerton, 67, 123. 

Almack, 33. 

Almont, 29. 

Amazonia, 33. 

Amble, the, 164. 

American Girl, 31. 

American Horse Breeder, the, 48, 
140. 

Anazeh. See Arabian Horses. 

Andrew Jackson. See Jackson. 

Anglomaniacs, 22. 

Arabian Horses. (See Darley, 
GoDOLPHiN, Jennifer, Leeds, 
TviNDSEY.) The Anazeh horses, 
262, 264, 265, 267, 268, 272, 281 ; 
as a cross, 280, 282; as colts, 277; 
color of, 264; ears of, 269, 271; 
firing of, 279 ; fixity of type, 261 ; 
foals, 276; half-bred .Arabs, 263, 
264; head of, 269, 270; mi ported 



to England, 118, 119, 262; im- 
ported to United States, 41, 282 ; 
as jumpers, 282. The Nejd horses, 
262, 265, 266, 267; nostrils of, 
271; origin of, 258-261; pedi- 
grees of, 257 ; points of, 268-274. 
As polo ponies, 156 ; race with 
English horse, 119 ; as saddle 
horses, 153; soundness of, 273; 
as stayers, 153, 282 ; tail of, 267, 
268, 272; temper of, 274, 275. 

Arabs, their opinion as to impor- 
tance of dam, 58 , as horse-break- 
ers, 274; manner of riding, 275; 
respect for good birth, 255, 256, 
279. 

Arabo-maniacs, 258, 280, 285. 

Archy, Sir, 52. 

Arion, 30, 53, 83, 84, 85. 

Arnica. 306. 

Auburn Horse, 34, 35 

Avery Horse, 197. 

Awful, Nancy, 75. 



Backs, 116, 145,296 

Badminton, 300. 

Badminton Library, 136, 173, 174, 

207. 
Bagdad, 264, 265- 
Raid Galloway, 51. 
Bandiiging, 306, 308, 311. 
Barbs, 171, 215, 278. 280. 



326 



INDEX. 



Barefooted horses, 313, 314. 

Baronet, 33. 

Basse tt, Harry, 39. 

Battell, Mr. J., 121 

Bay, 80. 

Bay Fearnaught, 127. 

Beaufort, Duke of, 203. 

Beautiful Bay, 40 

Bedding, 131, 242, 288, 289, 293, 

294. 
Beer, 210. , 

Belle of Wabash, 40. 
Bellfounder, 24, 26, 27. 
Belmont, 29. 
Benton, Gen., 83. 
Beverages for horses, 210. 
Billy Duroc, 34 
Blackhawk, Vermont, 30, 44. 
Black Joker, 142. 
Blacksmith, 131, 287, 313, 316. 
Blanketing, 299, 307, 317-319, 321. 
Blinders, 131. 
Bloody Buttocks, 41. 
Blue Bull, Herring's, 47; Pruden's, 

48; Wilson's, 24, 48, 50. 
Blue Grass region, 161 . 
Blunt, Lady Anne, 256, 257, 282. 
Blunt, Mr."w., 256, 257, 262, 266, 

271, 276. 
Bodine, 101. 

Bonheur, Mile Rosa, 208. 
Bonner, Mr. R., 3], 34, 35, 69, 82, 

316. 
Booker, Sam, 162. 
Boots for horses, 72, 90. 
Boott, Mr. J., 26. 
Borrow, Mr. G., 27, 116, 190, 191. 
Boston, 39, 53. 
lioston, city horses of, 210. 
Boston Fire Department, 229 et seq. 
Boston Girl, 127. 
Bran Mash, 241, 297, 298. 
Breaking, from a trot, 91, 94, 95. 
Brewers. See London Brewers. 
Brinker's Drennan, 162. 
Broncos, 8, 167-171, 278. 
Bronco thoroughbreds, 171-173. 



Brood Mares, 56-58. 

Brood Mare Sires, 56. 

Brooklyn Fire Department, 232, 

236, 241, 250. 
Bucephalus, 197. 
Bulrush, 126. 
Bun bury. Sir Charles, 51. 
Burdett-Coutts, Mr., 152, 189, 198. 
Bush Messenger, 33. 
Byerly Turk, 41, 51, 119. 



Cabell's Lexington, 162. 

California Horses, 39, 82. 

California Stage Horses, 170. 

Cambridge Fire Department, 232, 
250. 

Canadian Horses, 126, 159, 162. 

Canter, the, 165. 

Capucine. 199. 

Car Horses, 212, 228. 

Carriages, early, 181 ; improvement 
in, 180, 203. 

Carriage Horses, 150, 178 et seq.; 
American, 195-199; clipping of, 
319-321; early, 183-185; im- 
provement in, 178, 183-187, 203; 
the primitive, 179; state, 184, 
189; as weight-pullers, 203, 204; 
See also Cleveland Bay, Cob, 
Hackney, Yorkshire Coach 
Horse, and French Coach 
Horse. 

Cart Horses, 206 et seq. ; beauty 
of, 206, 209; Blue Bulls as, 48; 
mechanically considered, 217; on 
the farm, 209, 225; pictures of, 
208; shape of, 217. 224; types 
of, 224. See also Clydesdales, 
Perchehons, Shire Horses, 
Suffolk Punch. 

Cart Horse Society, 214. 

Castianira, 52. 

Champions, the, 33. 

Grinnell's, 33, 34. 
King's, 34. 
Vermont, 139. 



INDEX. 



327 



Charles I., 118. 

Charles II., 118. 

Charlier method of shoeing;-, 249. 

Check reins, i;j2-135, 212, 213, 

Chicago Fire Department, 232, 236, 

241,' 242. 
Chillal)y, 80. 
Chloe, 211. 
Clay-Arabians, 285. 
Clay Pilot, 40. 
Clays, the, 29, 36, 39, 64, 81. 
CaliCornia, 39. 
as carriage horses, 196. 
Cassius M., 40. 
Henry, 36-39. 
hall-mark of, 40. 
Clipping, 319-321. 
Cleveland Bays, 185-187, 189, 190, 

260; in the United States, 192. 
Clydesdales, 12, 219, 221, 223-225. 
Coaches, early, 181-183; fast, 187- 

188; in London, 180. 
Coach horses, 223. See Cakriage 

Horses. 
Cobs, 147, 198, 201-203. 
Cold, effects of, 47, 168- 
Color, of Arabians, 264; of Brewers' 
horses, 210; of Cleveland Bnys, 
187; cream color, 184; of French 
Coach Horses, 193; of Perche- 
rons, 220; of Sliire Horses, 214; 
of Suffolk Punches, 218. 
Colts, Arabian, 277. 
Comanches, 169. 
Comstock, Hark, 46. 
Conestoga Horses, 238. 
Conover, Peter, 72. 
Conqueror, 141. 
Cook, Fanny, 45. 
Cooling, 305, 307, 308. 
Copperbottom, 162. 
Corn, 296, 297. 
Cow-pony, 167-171, 278. 
Crawley,' Sir Pitt, 186. 
Cribbinir, 288. 
Crofts, Mr.. 40. 
Cropping, 21. 



Cummings, Mr. M. L., 38. 
Curwen's Bay Barb, 51. 



Dalgetty, Capt. Dugald, 130. 

Damascus, 204. 

Dame Winnie, 54. 

Dana, Mr. R. H., 176. 

Darley Arabian, 51, 119, 262. 

Darwin, Mr., 260. 

Dave, 72. 

Day, Mr. Wm., 12, 119, 226, 274. 

De Lancey, Col., 40. 

Demnark, 163. 

Derby, the first, 51. 

Dexter, 31, 69, 70, 72. 

Dictator, 29, 81, 87. 

Diligence Horses, 222. 

Dionied, 24, 34, 40, 47, 49, 50, 51, 

52, 53, 125. 
Direct, 53. 
Dirigo, 127. 
Dillard, John, 163. 
Doble, Mr. Budd, 72, 73, 74, 99, 

101. 
Docking, 21. 
Dodge, Col. R. I., 167. 
Dodge, Col. T. A., 164, 166, 107, 

278, 314. 
Dray Horses. See London Dray 

HoKSEs and Cart Horses. 
Dressing, 303, 305. 
Drews, the, 126. 
Drivers of trotters, 92, 93, 95; of 

roadsters, 95, 96, 114, 136. 
Driving, the art of. 94, 95. 
Dryness essential to horses, 293. 
Duke of Magenta, 152. 
Duroc, 34. 
Duroc, Billy, 34. 
Durer, Albert, 216. 
Dutchman, 61, 74. 



Ears of horses, 117; of Arabian 
horses, 269, 271; mouse ears, 
239. 



328 



INDEX. 



Eaton Horse, the, 197-200. 
Eclipse, American, 30, 33, 69, 126. 

English, 80. 
Electioneer, 29, 39, 83. 
Electioneers, the, 30. 
Emblem, 146. 

Endurance. See Roading. 
Engineer, 33. 

English Cart Horse Society, 214. 
English horsemen, 17. 
Evelyn, Mr., 181. 
Exmoor Ponies, 260. 



Fair Nell, 119, 144, 154. 

Families, Trotting, 23-59. 

Fanny Pullen, 33. 

Farm Horses, 209, 225-227. 

Farnum, Mr., 138. 

Fearnaughts, the, 126, 127. 

Felix, 107-112. 

Feet, the care of, 308-310. 

Feet, white, 69. 

Fire Engines, 230. 

Fire Engine House, 235. 

Fire Horses, accidents to, 240, 248; 
appearance of, 229; bedding of, 
242; cost of, 250; duty of, 229, 
2.30, 231, 236, 242; exercise of. 
241 ; fate of, 253, 254; feeding of, 
241 ; feet of. 248 ; harness of, 230, 
235, 236; hospital for, 247, 248; 
shape of, 232-234, 245; shoeing 
of, 249; stories of. 233, 234, 2-38, 
239, 240, 243. 244, 250. 252 253 ; 
training of, 232, 2.37, 2-38, 239. 

Firing of horses by Arabs, 279. 

First Consul, 35. 

Fisher, Major, 304. 308. 

Flagg, Dr., 124. 

Fleming, Mr. Geo.. 305, 310. 

Flemish Horses, 184, 214, 263. 

Flora Temple, 64, 68, 142. 

Florence, 107-112. 

Florizel, 51. 

Flying Childers, 51. 

Flying Eaton, 145, 197, 198. 



Foals, endurance of, 274; Arabian, 

276. 
Foot, the care of, 308-310. 
FuUerton, Judge, 101. 
Forrest, Edwin, 31, 87. 
Forestei-, Frank, 52, 62. 
Fox Hunting, 151. 
Franklin County, Me., 197, 199. 
French Coach Horse, 193, 199. 
Frog, 249, 308, 312, 315. 
Fylde, 40. 



Gait, altering, 90 ; of Arabian 
horses, 273, 281; of carriage 
horses, 193; of Flora Temple, 
67; of high steppers, 149, 194; of 
Morgans, 122, 197; of trotters, 
122, 123, 147, 281 ; of roadsters, 
67, 122, 204; of saddle horses, 
159, 164, 165. 

Gallop, the, 165. 

Galton, Mr. F., 15. 

Gano, 30. 

Gentling, 16. 

Gilbey, Mr. W., 214, 216. 

Gimcrack, 42. 

Giraud, Mr., 291. 

Glencoe, 53, 152. 

Godolphin Arabian, or Barb, 50, 51, 
119. 

Golddust, Lucille, 101. 

Goldsmith, Mr. A., 72. 

Goldsmith Maid, 71-74, 84, 99, 100. 

Gomussa, horses of, 262. 

Grant, 72. 

Grant, Gen., Arabian horses of, 
]54, 264. 

Grand Bashaw, 24, 35. 

Grass, 299. 

Gray Eagle, 40. 

Great Eastern, 62. 

Green Mountain Maid, 58. 

Grief, 251, 252. 253. 

Grinnell's Champion, 33, 34. 

Grooming, 303, 305. 

Grooms, 72, 99, 130, 303,304. 



INDEX. 



329 



Hackney, 32, 199-192. 

Hail, Emir of, 265, 266. 

Hal, Brown, 163. 

Hal, Tom, 163. 

Hal Pointer, 163. 

Haleem Pacha, 119. 

Half-breds, 150, 151, 171, 205. 

Hambletonian, Rysdyck's, 26-28. 
Harris's, 33. 

Hambletoiiians, the, 26-28, 196; 
hall-mark of, 40; as carriage 
horses, 196. 

Hamerton, Mr. P. G., 9, 10, 206. 

Hands, 176. 

Hanks, Nancy, 53, 63, 87. 

Hanoverian Horses, 181. 

Happy Medium, 29, 87. 

Harkness, Mr. J., 110. 

Harness, of road horses, 131-135; 
of fire horses, 231, 235, 236. 

Harold, 29, 56. 

Harris, Mr. S. T., 58. 

Harry Bassett, 39. 

Hay, best kind of, 299; meadow, 294; 
necessity of, 295, 296 ; racks, 289. 

Hays, M.'du, 221. 

Helm, Mr. H. T., 39, 91, 105. 

Hempstead, 146. 

Henry, 69. 

Henry, Sir, 126. 

Hickock. Mr. O., 81. 

Highland Maid, 68. 

High School Horsi . . 165, 166. 

High-steppers, 194. 

Holmes, Dr. O. W., 59. 

Hook and Ladder Truck, 230, 234. 

Hopeful, 67. 

Horses, duty toward, of owners, 7, 
19; of users, 2, 3; feeding of, 295- 
299; friendships of, 72, 80; na- 
ture of, 10, 11, 12, 93, 237; malle- 
ability of, 280; nervous energy 
of, 11, 12, 14, 57; origin of, 2-59; 
points of, 217; Saturday Re- 
view on, 217. See Bedding, 
Clipping. Dkiving, Grooming, 
Shoeing, etc. 



Hulbert, Ed, 113. 

Hull, Mr. J., 157. 

Hunter, Kentucky, 64, 87. 

Huntington, Mr. K., 37, 154, 285. 

Huntress, 61. 

Hyde Park, 180, 183, 192. 



Indian Carriage, 179. 
Indian Ponies, 8, 167. 
Insurance (Protective) Wagon 
Horses, 246, 247. 



Jack, 45. 

Jackson, Andrew, the horse, 35, 36. 
Jackson, Andrew, the man, 49. 
Jackson, Stonewall, 49. 
Jarnette, Lady de, 133, 134. 
James I., 118. 
Jay-Eye-See, 47, 53, 81, 85. 
Jefferson, Mr., 304. 
Jeffreys, Mr. D., 35. 
Jennifer Arabian, 223. 
Jimmy, 78, 79. 

Jobmasters. See London Job- 
masters. 
John, 244. 
Johnston, 18. 
Judge Fullerton, 101. 



Radishes, 263. 
Kellogg, Mr. P. C, 46. 
Kent aiare, the Charles, 26. 
Kentucky folk, 162, 163, 165, 166, 

179; horses, 29, 30, 161, 162; 

Hunter, 64, 87; saddle horses, 

161-167. 
Kerbeck, M. de, 31. 
Kickapoo Indians, 169. 
Kicking, 288. 
Killbuck Tom, 283. 
King Cole, 211. 
King Herod, 41, 51, 52. 
King's Champion, 34. 
Kismet, 262. 



330 



INDEX 



Kuapp, Shepherd F., 198, 199. 
Knight, horse of, 213-216. 
Knox, Gen., the horse, 125, 151. 
Knox, Gen., the man, 121. 



Lady Duval, 58. 

Ladv Patriot, 29. 

Lady Thorne, 30, 31, 151. 

Lakeland Abdallah, 56. 

Lambert, Daniel, 13, 45, 46. 

Lancet, 68. 

Lavengro, 116, 190. 

Lee, Gen. Harry, 41. 

Lee, Nancy, 87. 

Leeds Arabian, 51. 

Leopard, 154, 264. 

Leopard Rose, 283. 

Lewis, Col., 152. 

Lexington, 53, 81, 83. 

Lexington, Cabell's, 162. 

Lindse}' Arabian, 41. 

Linsley, Mr. D. C, his book, 121. 

Little Dot, 62. 

London Brewers, 210 

Coaches, 180. 

Dray Horses, 214, 225. 

Jobmasters, 189, 203. 

Streets, 180. 
Lovelace, Col., 140. 
Lucille Golddust, 101. 
Lucy, 31, 73. 
Lucy Jimmy, 72. 
Lulu, 33. 
Lynn Fire Department, 232. 



Mace, Mr Dan, 13, 31, 94. 

Maine Horses, 33, 125, 126, 194, 
197-201, 283. 

Mambriuo, 30. 

Mambrino Chief, 30. 

Mambrino King, 31. 

Mambrino Patchen, 30, 32, 56, 57. 

Mambrino Patchens, the, 196; hall- 
mark, 40; tails of, 267 

Mambrino Paymaster, 30. 



Manette, 83. 

Margrave, 53. 

Mark ham, Gervase, 184. 

Marlborough, Duke of, 32, 63. 

Marshland Shales, 27, 191. 

Marvin, Mr. C, 83, 101, 133, 310. 

Matchem, 52. 

Maud S., 29, 47, 53, 63, 81, 82, 96, 
315. 

Messenger, 24, 25, 33, 50, 53, 197. 

Messenger, Bush, 33. 

Messenger, Winthrop, 33. 

Michaux, M. 162. 

Middle Ages, horse of, 213-216. 

Miller's Damsel, 50. 

Miss Russell, 53. 

Moor, the, 39. 

Morgan, John, 68. 

Morgan, Justin, the horse, 41, 42, 
121, 126. 

Morgan, Justin, the man, 121. 

Morgans, the, anecdotes of, 43, 
123-125; as carriage horses, 196- 
199 ; as cobs, 202 ; as road- 
sters, 121-127, 137-141, 97-201; 
as saddle horses, 139, 158, 159, 
161 ; gait of, 122, 197 ; origin of, 
41. 

Morocco, Emperor of, 41. 

Morrills, Winthrop, the, 126. 

Morse Horse, 33. 

Mouse ears, 239. 

Murphv, Mr. J., 70. 

Murrav, Rev. W. H. H., 121. 

Mustangs, 8, 167-171, 278. 



Naomi, 262, 285. 

Nancv Awful, 75 

Nancy Hanks, 53, 63, 87. 

Nancy Lee, 87. 

Nancy Pope, 47. 

Narragansett Pacers, 157-158. 

Nejd. See under Arabian Horses. 

Nelson, 63. 

Nevins, Mr. D., 127. 

Nervous Energy, 11, 57, 58, 120. 



INDEX. 



331 



Night Team, the, 188. 

Nimrod, 292. 

Nobby, 107-112. 

Norfolk Trotter, 23, 26, 27, 190, 

191. 
Norman Horses, 47, 219, 22:j. 
Nutwood, 29, 5;J, 8;J. 



Oats, 296, 297. 
Old Charlie, 72, 73. 
Old Joe, 252, 253. 
O'Reilly, Mr. J. B., 22. 
Orloff -trotters, 38, 39. 
Ostlers, 13, 99, 130, 303, 304. 
Women, 222. 



Pace, the, 163, 164. 
Facers and Kentucky Saddle Horses, 
162, 163 

and Trotters, 46, 163. 

Mile record of, 163. 

Narragansett, 157, 158. 

Shape of, 64. 
Pacing Cart Horses, 48. 
Pacing Pilot, 24, 40, 47, 162. 
Pads, Arabian saddles, 275. 
Pads for feet, 248, 310. 
Pale Face, 171. 

Palgrave, Mr. W. G., 145, 266, 279. 
Pamlico, 4-5, 195, 196. 
Palo Alto, the farm, 301, 316. 
Palo Alto, the horse, 30, 54, 63, 81, 

82, 83, 85. 
Paris Omnibus Horses, 223. 
Parker, the, 165. 
Pari in, Mr. S. W., 145. 
Partner, 41. 
Pastern .Joints in the saddle horse, 

145; in Arabian horses, 273. 
Pasturing, 299. 
Payne Stock Farm, 196. 
Pearl, 35. 

Peat-moss, 293, 294. 
Pea Vine, 166. 
Peerless, 35, 88. 



Pedigrees. See Thoroughbred 

and Stud Book 
Pedigrees of Arabian HorseS; 256, 

257. 
Penultima, 33 
Pepys, Mr., 181, 182, 183. 
Percherons, 12, 204, 220-225. 
Peter, 239. 

Petting, utility of, 8, 242. 
Phillips, Maiiie, 200. 
Pickering, Mr. Ned, 182. 
Pilot, 24, 40, 47, 162. 
Pilot, Jr., 47, 53, .56, 81. 
Ploughing, 209, 226, 227. 
Pointer, Hal, 163. 
Polo Ponies, 171-173. 
Pope, Nancy, 47. 
Prince Albert, 220. 
Princess, 68. 
Privation, effects of, 168. 
Prize-fighting, 111, 151. 
Protective (Insurance) Company's 

Horses, 246, 247. 
Provender, 296. 

Providence Fire Department, 232. 
PuUen, Fanny, 33. 
Purity. 52. 



Quartermaster, 32. 
Quorn Hunt, the, 151. 



Racks, trotting, 87, 92, 96-98; run- 
ning, 72, 92, 160. 
Rangeley, Maine, 200. 
Rarus, 75-79. 
Rattler, 71. 

Record Breakers, 57, 58. 
Red Bird, 34. 
Reefing, 96 
Renock, .Joe, 139. 
Reynolds, Mr. R. S., 213. 
Rheumatism, 311. 
Rice, Mr. J.. 51. 
Rifleman. 152. 
Riding. 174-176. 



332 



INDEX. 



Koad Horses, breeding of, 117-120; 
care of, 130, 131, 136, 137, 138; 
checking of, 13-1; definition of, 
114; feeding of, 136-138; har- 
ness of, 131 ; points of, 116, 117 ; 
shoeing of, 131; watering, 301, 
302. 

Roading, instances of, 127, 138, 139, 
140-142, 200, 221, 283, 284. 

Koaring, 292. 

Rockingliam, 52. 

Rodes Mare, 30. 

Rose of Washington, 68. 

Royal Mares, 118. 

Royal Tar, 283. 

Rubbers, 99, 303-305. 

Rubbing down, 305-307. 

Running Footmen, 183. 

Running Mate, 44, 45. 

Ruskin, Mr., 178. 

Rysdyck's Hambletonian, 26-28. 



Saddle Horses, breeding of, 152, 
153, 162; disposition of, 149, 150; 
disuse of; 159; Kentucky, 161- 
167; mounting, 174, 175; points 
of, 144-146, 155,156; training of, 
174, trotting under saddle, 146. 

Saint Julien, 81, 85. 

Salt, 298. 

Salt Marsh, 311. 

Salt Water, 311. 

Sampson, 24, 25. 

Sand, George, 5. 

Sandford and Merton. 218. 

Santa Glaus, 36. 

Saturday Review, 217. 

Schoolmaster, 171, 172. 

Scott, Mr. M., 160. 

Scott, Sir W., 215. 

Scoring, 98, 99. 

Scratches, 220, 308. 

Searcher, 125. 

Sensation horses, 194. 

Shakspere, 277. 

Sharp, Miss Becky, 186. 



Sherman Morgan, 44, 126. 

Shire Horses, 183, 214-217, 226, 227. 

Shoeing, 312-317 ; Gharlier method 
of, 249; of fire horses, 249; of 
mustangs or broncos, 314; of 
roadsters, 131 ; of trotters, 90. 

Shoulders of cart horses, 217; of 
saddle horses, 144; of trotters, 
63, 64. 

Shying, 14-16, 117. 

Sidney, Mr. S., 154. 

Sir Archy, 52. 

Skeleton wagon, 67, 89. 

Smith, Mr. T. A., i76. 

Smithtield, 182. 

Smuggler, 47, 64, 91, 100. 

Sons of Horses, 263, 264. 

Sontag, 33. 

Sophronisba, 33. 

Sore Backs, etc., 305, 312. 

Spanish Horses, 171. 

Spectator Mare, 51. 

Spike Team, 243. 

Spiral Spring, 231. 

Spirit of the Times, 107, 109. 

Splan, Mr. J., 18, 76, 107-112, 131, 
134, 318. 

Sprague, Gov., 33. 

Sprains, 311. 

Springs, 180, 181. 

Squirt, 52. 

Stable, the, 288-292. 

Stalls, 288, 290, 291. 

Stamboul, 39, 63, 64. 

Stanford, Gov., 30, 85. 

Stars, family of, 69. 

Starting a load, 212, 231. 

Sta3'^ers, 153. 

Stopping. See Stuffing. 

Strathmore, 29. 

Straw, 294. 

Stud Book, for Cleveland Bays, 189 ; 
for hackneys, 190; for Kentucky 
saddle horses, 162; for thorough- 
breds, 23; for Yorkshire coach 
horses, 150, 189. 

Stuffing for feet, 309, 310. 



INDEX. 



333 



Stumbling, 147, 148, 149. 277, 
Stump the Dealer, 162. 
Suffolk Punch, 218, 219. 
Sulk)', 87, 89. 
Sultan, American, 39. 

English, 152. 
Sunol, 12, 63, 83, 85, 316. 
Sweating, 318, 320. 



Tacony, 68. 

Tails, of Arabian horses, 267, 268; 
of Hambletonians, 28 ; of Mam- 
brino Patchens, 267. 
Tallmadge, Capt., 41. 
Tattersall, Mr., 119, 290. 
Taverns, New England, 129, 303. 
Temple, Flora, 64, 68, 142. 
Tepee Poles, 179. 
Texas Horses, 171. 
Thackeray, Mr., 9. 
Thome, Lady, 30, 31, 151. 
Thornedale, 29. 

Thoroughbred, definition of, 23; 
beauty of, 207; docility of, 207; 
origin of, 118; uses of, 152. 
Thoroughbred Blood, in carriage 
horses, 186, 205; in Kentucky 
saddle horses, 162; in polo po- 
nies, 171-173; in roadsters, 117- 
120; in trotters, 53, 54. 
Thrush, 308. 
Toe-weights, 90, 91. 
Tom Thumb, 142. 
Topgallant, 74. 
Toothaker, Squire 200, 201. 
Touchstone Family, 270. 
Tournament Roll. 216. 
Tracks, 88, 89; kite, 89. 
Trainers, 92, 93. 
Tramp, 152. 
Trampoline, 152. 
Tredwell, Mr. J., 33. 
Trollope, Mr. A., 176. 
Trotting Families, 23-59. 
Trotting Horses, breeding of, 53, 54, 
55, 61; friendships of, 72, 73, 77, 



79, 80; gait of, 122 123, 165; 
points of, 62-64; origin of, 23 
tt stq.; various, 59 et seq. 

Trotting Ponies, 142, 173. 

Trotting Races, 92 et seq.; condi- 
tions of, 96-99. 

Troublesome, 199, 200. 

True Briton, 26, 40. 

Truefit, 152. 

Trumpeter, 152. 

Trustee, American, 33, 53, 142. 
Imported, 33, 53. 

Truxton, 49. 

Turf, Field, and Farm, the, 103, 106. 

Turner, Mr. J. :M. W., 208. 

Turning out to pasture, 299. 



Upton, MaJ. R. D., 258, 259, 260, 
262, 268, 271, 272, 273, 281. 



Vanderbilt, Mr. W. H., 96. 

Velocity, 27. 

Vermont Blackhawk, 36, 44. 

Vermont Champion, 139. 

Vermont Hero, 125. 

Vermont Horses, 33, 139. 

Vernon, Mr. R., 51. 

Vertumnus, 33. 

Veterinary Surgeon, 13, 124. 213, 

246, 249, 305, 310. 
Vielee, Mr,, 65. 
Volunteer, 29, 61, 81. 



Walker, Rev. G. L., 13. 
Walpole, Mr, Horace, 179. 
Warren, Mr. S. D., 171. 
War Horse, 213-216. 
Washington, Gen., 151. 
Washington, son of Knapp, 199. 
Waxey (horse), 152, 162. 
Waxy (mare), 83. 
Weaving, 288. 
Web, 152. 
Wedgewood, 14, 29, 32. 



334 



INDEX. 



Weight-carriers, 145. 

Weight of drivers, 92; of jockeys, 
92. 

Weight Pulling. 67, 212. 

Weight Pullers as carriage horses, 
203, 204; as cart horses, 217, 
219, 221 ; as coach horses, 203, 
204; as fire horses, 232, 234; 
as trotters, 67. 

AYheel, invention of, 180. 

Whyte-Melville, Mr., 145, 269. 

Wildair, 41. 

Wild Tiger, 200, 201. 

Wilkes, Geo., the horse, 29, 30, 32, 
39. 

Wilkes, Geo., the man, 6b, 94. 



Winkers, 132. 
Winship, H. B., 44. 
Winthrop Messenger, 33. 
Winthrop Morrills, the, 126. 
Woodburn, Kentuck3\ 29. 
Woodruff, Mr. H., 34", 35, 68, 74, 88, 
94, 142, 295. 



YoRKSHiKE Coach Horse, 189, 

190, 192. 
Yorkshire Coach Horse Society, 

150. 
Youatt, 142. 
Y'"oung Bashaw. 35. 
Y^oung Selini, 49. 



